High-Level Zimbabwean Delegation Visits Changde Cigarette Factory

03/09/2006

A high-level Zimbabwean government delegation visited Changde Cigarette Factory in middle of China's Hunan Province on March 1, expressing the hope to cooperation with Changde Cigarette Factory in leaf tobacco production. The Zimbabwean delegation grouped Deputy Minister of Justice David Mangota, Deputy Minister of Agriculture Simon Pazvakavambwa, the Finance Ministry's treasury department chief Judith Kateera and the Tobacco Industry Marketing Board General Manager Judith kateera. Accompanying the Zimbabwean delegation on the visit were Deputy General Manager Gao Xuelin of China National Tobacco Import-Export Group Corporation and Office director of China Tobacco of Hunan Industrial Corp. The delegation visited the workshops with director of Changde Cigarette Factory Zeng Xianbing. Then the senior Zimbabwean officials held talks with their Chinese hosts. The two sides reached primary cooperation intention. Since 2002, Changde Cigarette Factory have brought about 7261.6 tons leaf from Zimbabwe, occupied about 10% total imported tobacco from Zimbabwe. In the talks, the delegation said that as China is a big and importance market, Zimbabwe wishes very much to cooperate with China in the tobacco trade, and that the two countries should strengthen cooperation between tobacco enterprises, and should focus on leaf tobacco production and farmers training. Finally, the delegation urged tobacco enterprises of two countries to do more contribution for economic development of two countries. Enditem