REMARKS BY H.E. DR. JAKAYA MRISHO KIKWETE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA AT THE STATE BANQUET HOSTED IN HIS HONOUR BY H.E. EDGAR CHAGWA LUNGU, PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF ZAMBIA, 25th FEBRUARY, 2015, LUSAKA
Rais Dkt.Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete na mwenyeji wake Rais Edgar Lungu wa Zambia wakigonga glasi wakati wa dhifa ya kitaifa aliyoiandaa kwa heshima ya Rais Kikwete jijini Lusaka Zambia jana jioni.
Your Excellency Edgar Lungu and Mrs.
Esther Lungu;
Your Excellency Madame Inonge Wina,
Vice President;
Honourable Ministers and Members of
Parliament;
Your Excellencies, Ambassadors and
High Commissioners;
Distinguished Guests;
Distinguished Guests;
Ladies and Gentlemen;
I
thank Your Excellency and dear brother for the kind words you have said about
me, my country and the excellent relations which so happily exist between our
two sister-republics. I cannot find
words good enough to express my profound joy to be able to pay a visit to Zambia,
so early into your Presidency. In this
regard, I sincerely thank you for your kind invitation and the very warm
reception and gracious hospitality. You
have made my wife and I and our entire delegation feel very much at home. This is the typical Zambian reception we
know. I also thank you so much for the
wonderful arrangement which has made my short visit very successful. It speaks a thousand words about the importance
you attach to our relations.
I bring with me, very warm and
fraternal greetings from the government and your brothers and sisters in
Tanzania. They heartily congratulate you on your well deserved election to the
highest office of your great country, despite the preceding sad circumstances
which necessitated the elections. They
wish you well and pray for your success in steering the affairs of your great
nation.
The
people of Tanzania look to this visit with great enthusiasm and optimism. They do so because, it has been a tradition
since the days of the founding fathers of
our two sister Republics, His Excellency Kenneth Kaunda and His Excellency
Mwalimu Julius Nyerere (now late) that the exchange of such visits not only
advance our relations but, also, come up with big things.
The previous meetings between our leaders give
birth to the Tanzania – Zambia Highway, the Tanzania – Zambia Railway (TAZARA),
the TAZAMA Pipeline and a host of joint endeavours. These symbolic projects have always been the umbilical
cord linking our two nations and two peoples.
They have been defining and sustaining our bilateral relations. When
some of these institutions would be going through difficulties, meetings like
ours would help resolve or easy them.
Indeed, our people were right to
harbour such expectations. The very fruitful official talks we held, lived up
to their wishes and expectations. Let me
say that all the pertinent issues obtaining in the Zambia-Tanzania relations
and cooperation were discussed in depth and breath. Mutual understanding was reached,
particularly on ways and means to tackle the challenges being experienced and develop
our bilateral relations and cooperation to the greatest heights possible. This underlines the trust and confidence
between our two countries. The cordial nature of the discussions is worth mentioning,
for it speaks volumes about the special bonds and friendship between our two
countries.
We
have discussed ways to revive TAZARA and make it a well functioning railway
line for the benefit of our two countries and the region. We discussed the TAZAMA pipelines, the
Tanzania - Zambia Highway, the Dar es
Salaam Ports, Tunduma/Nakonde border post, as well as movement of people of our
two countries. We explored other matters
of mutual interest and benefit to our two countries and two peoples. Sincerely, I will go home tomorrow immensely
satisfied with the state of our relations.
There is a very bright future ahead of us.
Your Excellency;
I am glad we both saw the need of
doing more to promote trade and investments between our countries. It is in this regard that I agree with you that
we should encourage our Chambers of Commerce and captains of Industries to be
more proactive in promoting relations between them. Let them play their rightful role and help
grow our economies, create jobs and alleviate poverty. We would like to see them pressurize our two
governments to do better with regard to our facilitation role. We also, underscored the role of the Joint
Permanent Commission (JPC) as a vehicle to strengthen and advance our bilateral
cooperation. Accordingly, we tasked our Ministers responsible for the various
cooperation sector to ensure better performance and delivery.
Your Excellency;
I am confident that Tanzanians and
Zambians will witness positive things happening in all our areas of cooperation
from now on because of this visit. Some
will be soon while some will take a while.
Honestly, I could not have had a fulfilling visit than this. Once again, I extend my sincere gratitude to
you and the people of Zambia for the unmatched friendly welcome, generosity and
a very successful short visit. We wish
we could stay longer. I hope, you will
also find time out of your busy schedule to pay a visit in the near
future. It has been a while since we
hosted a Zambian President for an official visit in Tanzania. We look forward to welcome you to your second
home.
Your Excellency;
Distinguished Guests;
Ladies and gentlemen;
May I now ask all of you present to
rise and join me in a toast to the continued good health and success of His
Excellency the President and Madame Esther Lungu; to continued friendship and
cooperation between our two countries and peoples.
Asanteni
sana.
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