DAR ES SALAAM, June 28 (Xinhua) -- Tanzania and Zimbabwe on Thursday agreed to strengthen ties on trade, investments and tourism.

Tanzanian President John Magufuli said there was need to boost trade between the two countries because it was the only way of encouraging and stimulating other development pacts.

Magufuli was speaking at the end of talks with visiting Zimbabwean President Emerson Mnangagwa who was in the east African country for a two-day state visit.

"In 2017, trade between the two countries was at Tanzanian shillings 21.1 billion (about 9.25 million U.S. dollars) up from Tanzanian shillings 18.3 billion in 2016. This trade volume is not enough, we need to take efforts to increase the trade volume," said Magufuli.

On investments, President Magufuli said Zimbabwe has 25 companies operating in Tanzania worth 32 million U.S. dollars and he invited more Zimbabweans to invest in Tanzania that has more than 44 million hectares of arable land.

He added that the two governments would soon revive the joint permanent commission that was formed in the early of 1980s.

"We have also seen the importance of improving the tourism sector given that we all have abundant tourists attraction. We need to have a joint package to market our tourism sites," added Magufuli.

Other areas that that the two heads of state discussed were expanding their cooperation to health, security, tradition, education and sports.

For his part, President Mnangagwa said Zimbabwe was now open for investments and trade with all countries in order for the southern African country to revive its economy and improve social service delivery.