OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Tuesday
DEMOCRATIC Republic of Congo (DRC) President Joseph Kabila and his Zimbabwean counterpart, Robert Mugabe, had talks on Monday on boosting trade and economic ties.
The talks, attended by the two countries’ key cabinet ministers, reviewed progress on a range of bilateral interests.
“The focus today was on bilateral issues of economic nature,” said Information Minister Jonathan Moyo.
The countries, whose relations evolved from the military assistance that Zimbabwean rendered to the DRC when it faced a rebel onslaught in 1998, have several cooperation agreements covering such areas as transport, communication, mining and energy.
Moyo said the two countries have agreed that Zimbabwe imports energy from the DRC transmitted via Zambia and South Africa.
“The objective is to try and get 450 megawatts of electricity from the DRC. At the moment we are not getting that and the bottlenecks were reviewed,” Moyo told reporters.
He said the two also examined the DRC agriculture potential and “taking advantage of our own experience especially in terms of food production” and research.
They also explored the possibility of expanding their ties to include environment and tourism.
“They (DRC) would like to have some wildlife exported from this country to the DRC,” said Moyo.
Zimbabwe is rich in wildlife, especially elephants whose population, experts say, exceeds the capacity of the country’s wildlife parks.
The two countries would also like to try to venture into exchange in information technology, according the minister. – AFP
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