Chairman of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) Pham Tan Cong and Minister of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation of the United Republic of Tanzania Mahmoud Thabit Kombo

On the morning of April 28, Chairman of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) Pham Tan Cong received and worked with Minister of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation of the United Republic of Tanzania Mahmoud Thabit Kombo.

The Tanzanian Foreign Minister said that Tanzania has high expectations and wishes to continue expanding and diversifying cooperation areas with Vietnam; emphasizing that with its strategic location in East Africa, Tanzania is ready to be a bridge for Vietnam to access large markets such as the East African Community (EAC), the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and hopes that Vietnamese enterprises will actively explore cooperation and investment opportunities in Tanzania.

The Minister also asked VCCI to consider promoting increased imports of goods in which Tanzania has strengths and Vietnam has demand, such as cotton and minerals. Tanzania also has high expectations and wishes to continue expanding and diversifying cooperation areas with Vietnam, focusing on potential areas where Tanzania can learn from Vietnam's development experience and attract investment such as industrialization, telecommunications, digital transformation, agricultural processing, post-harvest technology, mining, etc.

Assessing the Vietnam - Tanzania relationship as a historical relationship with a solid political foundation, built and developed by outstanding leaders of the two countries, Minister Mahmoud Thabit Kombo commented that with the good progress of bilateral cooperation in recent times, cooperation between the business communities of the two countries will be one of the important pillars in the future.

The Tanzanian Foreign Minister hopes that, with the coordination of VCCI, cooperation between the business communities of the two countries will be further promoted in the coming time, opening up new market opportunities for businesses of both sides.

The Chairman of VCCI took a photo with the Tanzanian Foreign Minister and businesses from the two countries attending the meeting.

According to the Chairman of VCCI, VCCI has always received attention from businesses about exploring opportunities to export to Tanzania some products such as agricultural and aquatic products, food, household appliances, construction materials... and import from Tanzania some products such as raw cashew nuts, cotton, natural wood... In addition, cooperation in attracting investment, tourism, cooperation in logistics, maritime transport with Tanzania has also received much attention from Vietnamese businesses.

However, the Chairman of VCCI also pointed out that information exchange between the two countries is still very limited, especially information in the field of trade. Businesses from the two countries do not understand much about each other's markets and business practices.

In fact, some Vietnamese export products have penetrated the Tanzanian market through foreign intermediary companies. Tanzanian enterprises have limited financial capacity, so direct trade through the L/C method is difficult to implement.

Therefore, the Chairman of VCCI proposed that Tanzania closely coordinate with VCCI to organize trade promotion activities, support enterprises of both sides to explore investment and business opportunities; at the same time support enterprises to invest and do business effectively.

The Chairman of VCCI pledged that VCCI will continue to cooperate with the Vietnamese Embassy in Tanzania and promotion organizations in Tanzania to increase exchanges, provide information on markets, investment opportunities, connect potential partners for enterprises of both sides; as well as support Tanzanian enterprises to verify Vietnamese enterprises and vice versa.

Tanzania is currently emerging as Vietnam's leading supplier of raw cashew nuts in Africa, with an import turnover in the first 3 months of 2025 reaching over 240 million USD, exceeding the whole year of 2024. Regarding investment cooperation, Viettel Group's HALOTEL telecommunications joint venture is highly appreciated by Tanzania. Cooperation in trade, agriculture, and information and communication between the two countries has made much progress.

In 2024, bilateral trade turnover reached 300 million USD, of which Vietnam exported 71.7 million USD to Tanzania, including 2 items: rice and textiles. Vietnam imported 228.4 million USD from Tanzania, including cashew nuts and some other goods.

Tanzania is in need of importing machinery, equipment, and cashew processing technology from Vietnam. In addition, Tanzania also wants to cooperate in joint ventures with Vietnam in the fields of textiles, milk production, fruit juice production, especially in the agricultural sector. Tanzania is also a market that can import some products such as teck wood, cashew nuts...