Zambia’s tourism impresses Benin
THE Zambian government should be congratulated for rejuvenating the tourism sector and making it one of the best and notable tourism destinations in the world, says Benin President Patrice Talon.
Mr Talon also noted that Zambia’s expertise in mining and agriculture have exponentially developed under the Patriotic Front (PF) government.
He has since expressed a keen desire and interest to immediately engage the Zambian government with a view to herald close relationships in various sectors between the two countries.
He made the remarks when he received credentials from Zambian extraordinary and plenipotentiary Ambassador to Benin Dr Solomon Jere at a special ceremony in Cotonou.
And Dr Jere expressed the Zambian government’s interest among other areas to develop the renewable energy sector.
He noted that the Benin’s Songhai Bio-energy Project and other latest initiatives put in place to develop the technology portfolio in biomass fuels production by the government of Benin were an area of special interest for Zambia to learn from.
He also cited the current four pilot gasifiers’ renewable energy projects, which were designed by the Benian government to convert agricultural residues (biomass) into energy, thereby generating a total of 76,651 megawatts hours of electricity.
“This would be of key interest to the Zambian government to learn from,” he said.
Dr Jere said that there would be need for the two countries to consider establishing a Joint Permanent Commission (JPC), which should be the vehicle of exchanging ideas and also a channel and platform for cementing the bilateral relationship.
To this extent President Talon immediately directed the relevant Ministries in his Government to commence the process of creating the roadmap in concert with Dr Jere at the Zambian Embassy in order to operationalise the proposal.