WALVIS BAY, Namibia, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Namibian President Hage Geingob together with his Zimbabwean counterpart Emmerson Mnangagwa have inaugurated Zimbabwe's dry port facility located in Namibia.

The dry port facility located in Namibia's coastal port town of Walvis Bay is set to ease movement of goods and services for landlocked Zimbabwe through the port, a strategically located logistics hub in the Southern African region.

Speaking at the inauguration Friday, Zimbabwe's president said the facility will act as a transit and storage facility for goods destined for the landlocked country, and will also drastically improve shipment of goods back and forth.

"We will forever be grateful to Namibia for this gesture which has given us a one-stop-shop for quick logistical processing of our goods," he added.

Furthermore, Mnangagwa said the dry port holds great potential not only in the facilitation of imports and exports via Walvis Bay Port to and from landlocked Zimbabwe but also augments efforts towards closer regional and continental economic integration.

The Namibian government in 2009 granted Zimbabwe 19,000 square meters of land to construct a dry port, seen as critical to boosting the landlocked southern African country's trade.

Before Zimbabwe was given access to the port of Walvis Bay, the country used to rely heavily on the Beira port in Mozambique as well as the Durban port in South Africa.