Zanzibar — Tanzania Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture (TCCIA) and its isles counterpart, Zanzibar National Chamber of Commerce Industry and Agriculture (ZNCCIA) sealed an agreement to partner in promoting trade.

The partner institutions signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at ZNCCIA offices here to cement their relation, at a ceremony graced by Zanzibar Minister of Trade, Industries and Marketing Amina Salum Ali.

“We need to strengthen collaboration and have one voice in demanding changes in promotion of trade in the country, targeting bigger EAC, SADC and international markets,” said Ambassador Ali.

She described the partnership of the two institutions as an indication of increased trade awareness, with focus on quality and standard goods in the market.

The minister asked the chambers’ members to support government plans to promote businesses in the country through strengthened Public Private Partnership (PPP), thanking Trademark East Africa (TMA) for initiating and supporting the MoU.

ZNCCIA Executive Director Munira Said and her TCCIA counterpart Magdalena Mkocha signed and exchanged documents, promising to share experiences in the interest of members and trade sector.

Country Director-TMA, Dr Joshepat Kweka, said that he was happy to witness the development, “Which is just the start of our long journey of support to the chambers. It is good for the chambers to increase business as we look forward to support advocacy, logistics and export orientated businesses.” He asked the chambers to set common goals of increasing trade within Tanzania and East Africa, and promoting exports to current and new markets.

Trade Mark East Africa (TMA) is a Non-Government Organization funded by a range of donors with the aim of accelerating prosperity in East Africa through trade. TMA has supported the MoU as a primary activity in setting up for a much bigger support to ZNCCIA.

TMA has allocated 100,000 US dollar (over 200m/-) in support of ZNCCIA automation. TCCIA is to share its success stories and give technical support to ZNCCIA on implementation of Electronic Certificate of Origin System and NTBs SMS and Online Reporting and Monitoring System.

Source: All Africa

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of TradeMark Africa.