Ministry, China institute sign pact to protect water resources

TANZANIA: THE Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries has signed an agreement with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) to strengthen cooperation in environmental protection and management of water resources.

Deputy Permanent Secretary at the Ministry, Prof Daniel Mushi and Vice-President of CAS, Professor Wang Kegiang signed the agreement over the weekend during the meeting held at the Ministry’s offices in Dar es Salaam.

Prof Mushi said the agreement will create another opportunity as well as expand the scope of cooperation to develop research and science and also to achieve the national development goals.

“Due to the scientific and technological progress that China has achieved so far, we, as Tanzania, will benefit greatly from collaborating with one of China’s research institutes,” said Prof Mushi.

He said the meeting was also attended by Vice-President of China’s largest institute. CAS oversees and facilitates more than 160 other research institutes in China.

Meanwhile, the government received laboratory tools worth 190,000 US dollars (about 576m/-) from the Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology (NIGLAS) to facilitate services to the Tanzania Fisheries Research Institute (TAFIRI).

Pro Mushi said CAS and the NIGLAS collaborated with the TAFIRI in developing Fisheries research, and carried out five joint projects where they produced nine international publications that increased TAFIRI’s visibility,” he said.

To start with, he said that they will be teaching nine master’s degree and PhD students, enabling the research laboratory of TAFIRI to conduct research on aquatic life and fisheries in Lake Tanganyika and the Indian Ocean region.

“We are ready to cooperate with Tanzania in promoting the Blue economy, especially to increase the strength in the aquatic organisms in water in the sea,” the CAS Vice-President Prof Keqiang said.

Prof Kegiang said that the existing cooperation between the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries and the Ministry of Science and Technology of China through NIGLAS and TAFIRI is more than 15 years old and was mainly focused on the great lakes and other cold water in the country.