Tanzanian Prime Minister Fredrick Sumaye on Sunday described his forthcoming visit to China as "a gesture of friendship" between the two countries. He expressed the belief that bilateral cooperation will be cemented even more closer through his trip starting from next Wednesday.

In an exclusive interview with Xinhua a few hours before his departure from Dar es Salaam Sunday afternoon for an official visit to China, Sumaye talked about a number of issues ranging from the purpose of his China visit to bilateral economic cooperation.

Noting that China is now doing very well in its economic development, he said he wants to see how the Chinese people have managed so successfully to bring the economy to where it is. "I will also want to visit agricultural development sites. Our country has a lot of potential. But we are not yet even self-sufficient in food production," he said.

The prime minister said that he wants to learn from China what it has done to make it feed 1.2 billion people, while Tanzania is still not able to comfortably and sustainedly feed its 30 million people.

He said Tanzania hopes that China can offer more investment and expertise to it to help develop its economy and agriculture. "Chinese companies and Chinese business community should open up their road to Tanzania. More of them should come," said the prime minister.

"In the future, this is the best way to cooperate. Our economy will obviously pick up if we have investment from countries like China," he added.

Sumaye said the Chinese people are more expert in agriculture, textile manufacturing, tourism management and mining, therefore they can offer Tanzania more technological assistance. He said: "China is a great friend of Tanzania for a very long time. It is a country that we value the relationship. It has assisted Tanzania in many ways. My trip therefore is a gesture of this friendship and to cement our cooperation even more." However, the prime minister noted that the two countries are not moving fast enough on joint ventures. "This is also an area which I would want to discuss when we are in China, " he added.

Tanzania is China's largest aid-recipient country in Africa. Since 1964, China has rendered various kinds of aid to Tanzania. The mutually beneficial co-operation between the two countries, which began in the 1960s, has been developing rapidly in recent years.

At present, there are eight Sino-Tanzanian joint ventures and eight Chinese companies running contract business in Tanzania. In 1998, the total volume of trade between China and Tanzania reached 79. 67 million U.S. dollars.