India, Tanzania working on agreement to expand bilateral trade using local currencies

New Delhi [India], October 9 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said that India and Tanzania are important partners for mutual trade and investment and both sides are working on an agreement to increase trade in local currencies.
Prime Minister Modi today held wide wide-ranging talks in the national capital with Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan who is in the country on a State visit.
The two leaders reviewed various facets of bilateral ties and discussed ways to further deepen the close and historic ties between the two countries.
Both sides also held delegation-level talks and on the agenda was a wide range of areas of bilateral cooperation, including trade and investment, defence and maritime security, development partnership, higher education and people-to-people ties.
PM Modi said that Tanzania is India's closest development partner in Africa,
Both PM Modi and Tanzanian President Hassan expressed a desire to expand bilateral trade using local currencies. The two leaders noted that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has cleared the way for trade using local currencies.
A joint statement by India and Tanzania at the end of the bilateral meeting read, "The two leaders expressed a desire to expand bilateral trade using local currencies. They noted that the Reserve Bank of India has cleared the way for trade using local currencies i.e. Indian Rupee and Tanzanian Shilling by allowing the authorized banks in India to open Special Rupee Vostro Accounts (SRVA) of correspondent banks of Tanzania and that transactions using this mechanism have already materialised."
"The two sides agreed to continue with the consultations in order to address any concerns so as to ensure sustainability of this arrangement," it added.
"India and Tanzania are important partners of each other for mutual trade and investment. Both sides are working on an agreement to increase trade in local currencies," PM Modi said while addressing a joint press conference with Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan.
"We will continue to explore new opportunities to realize the full potential of our economic cooperation. Tanzania is India's largest and closest development partner in Africa," PM Modi said.
Expressing a commitment to increase bilateral trade volumes. the two leaders agreed that both sides should harmonise trade volume data and take initiatives to further enhance bilateral trade volumes.
"The two sides expressed commitment to increase bilateral trade volumes and towards this end, directed the respective Officials to explore new areas of trade. It was further agreed that both sides should harmonise trade volume data and take initiatives to further enhance bilateral trade volumes by organizing visits of business delegations, business exhibitions and interaction with business communities," the joint statement said.
The Tanzanian side acknowledged that India is amongst its top five investment sources, whereby 630 investment projects worth USD 3.74 billion have been registered and thus creating 60,000 new jobs. The two sides welcomed recent trends of renewed interest among Indian businesspersons for investment in Tanzania.
The two sides agreed to explore the possibility of setting up of an Investment Park in Tanzania and the Tanzanian side assured full support in this regard.
The joint statement reads, "Both sides recognised that agriculture sector cooperation remains a strong pillar in the relations whereby 98 per cent of product lines from Tanzania are imported tariff-free using India's Duty Free Tariff Preference (DFTP) scheme. India remains a major destination for Tanzanian cashew nuts, pigeon peas, spices, avocado and other agricultural commodities. Both sides agreed to further revitalise cooperation in this sector."
The Tanzanian side expressed interest to cooperate with Indian government in the field of blue economy, including tourism, maritime trade, services and infrastructure, marine scientific research, capacity in seabed mining, ocean conservation and maritime safety and security.
The joint statement further reads, "India and Tanzania agreed to cooperate under the framework of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) to ensure a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable Indian Ocean Region."
Tanzania appreciated India's developmet partnership assistance in the areas of water, health, education, capacity building, scholarships and information and communication technology (ICT) among others.
The joint statement reads, "The two sides also expressed satisfaction on Lines of Credits (LoCs) extended by India to Tanzania that amount to over USD 1.1 billion covering fields of drinking water infrastructure, agriculture and defence."
It further added, "It was specifically noted that Water Projects in 24 towns of Tanzania worth USD 500 Million through a Line of Credit scheme are presently being implemented. Once completed, it would provide easy access to safe drinking water to about 6 million residents of these regions."
The Tanzanian side stated that the Indian scholarship and capacity-building program has tremendously contributed to its human resource development. India offers 450 Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) scholarships for capacity building and 70 Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) scholarships for long term programmes in 2023-24.
India announced the decision to increase the number of Long term scholarships (ICCR) from 70 to 85 for the year 2023-24. As part of its commitment to the Global South, India also announced 1000 additional ITEC slots for Tanzania to be used over a five-year period in new and emergent fields like Smart Ports, Space, Biotechnology, Artificial Intelligence, Aviation Management etc.
Earlier in the day, PM Modi held a bilateral meeting with the Tanzanian President Hassan at Hyderabad House in the national capital.
In a statement posted on X, the Ministry of External Affairs official spokesperson stated, "A new milestone in - relations. PM @narendramodi and President @SuluhuSamia of Tanzania held wide-ranging talks. The two leaders reviewed various facets of - ties and discussed ways to further deepen the close and historic ties between the two countries."
The Tanzanian President is in India at the invitation of President Draupadi Murmu.