Vietnamese Ambassador Nguyen Tien Nam (L) and Tanzania’s Minister of Agriculture Adolf Faustine Mkenda (Photo: baoquocte.vn)
At the working session, the Vietnamese Ambassador said the two countries have huge potential for cooperation in crop cultivation, animal husbandry, aquaculture, and forestry.
Mr. Tien also introduced Vietnam’s agricultural strengths to the Tanzania minister. He said that Vietnam earned more than 41 billion USD from agricultural exports in 2020, with the US being the largest importer, followed by China, the EU, ASEAN, and Japan.
Congratulating Mkenda on his reappointment as Minister of Agriculture, one of the most important economic sectors in Tanzania, the ambassador expressed his delight at the recent strides in the countries’ relations and highly appreciated the cooperation results in bilateral and multilateral aspects.
For his part, Minister Mkenda highlighted the countries’ good relations throughout history. In agriculture, Tanzania prioritises developing crop varieties and animal breeds, boosting production supporting services, increasing irrigation, expanding markets for agricultural exports, providing finance, and managing diseases, the minister said.
Mr. Mkenda asked Vietnam to share experience in developing such key farm produce as rice, coffee, tea, and cashew nuts while calling on Vietnamese enterprises to invest in building agricultural processing factories in his country.
The two sides shared the viewpoint on the importance of signing agreements, firstly those on double taxation avoidance and investment facilitation and protection, so as to create a legal framework for bilateral cooperation.
The Vietnamese diplomat also welcomed Tanzania attending a Vietnam - Africa conference on agriculture to be chaired by the Southeast Asian nation in late 2021./.