...and Dr. Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, President of the Republic of Zimbabwe—our Zimbabwe. You all know which river: the Zambezi River. Your Excellency, my dear brother, elder brother President Mnangagwa, let me start or continue where you left your messaging to us by expressing our gratitude, congratulating you and your team, expressing our gratitude to you and your team for your warm welcome to the great city of Harare.
I must say to you, Mr. President, I used to be a regular to this city in my previous life because I ran a firm called Coopers & Lybrand, and we had sister partners here that we used to visit each other quite often. We would come to Harare meetings, Bulawayo meetings, Nyanga area there, where we could strategize on how to deal with difficult employees on both sides of the river. But more important—that's a joke—how we could grow our businesses: Coopers & Lybrand here, Coopers & Lybrand in Zambia, Coopers & Lybrand in South Africa, in the whole region. So we actually had a regional partnership which went very, very well. We were regulars here. My colleagues were regulars in Lusaka, regulars in other cities in the region. So while the political side was advancing work to advance regional cooperation, we also were advancing regional cooperation on the business side. Harare is a very familiar city to some of us, and it's been gracious and always good to visit Harare.
Your Excellency, thank you for your warm welcome and, more importantly, for this occasion, which you have touched already: the graduation of our relationship, long-standing relationship. Mr. President, Your Excellency, many people talk of bilateral partnership post-independence. Zimbabwe and Zambia have been together pre-independence. Pre-independence. If you look at the historic sites in Zimbabwe, Monomotapa Kingdom, you look at the trade routes that time in the Stone Age era, in the Iron Age era, you see the routes from here crossing the river in Chirundu in a place called Ingombe Ilede. Our people traded, lived together, actually raised families together across the river.
So, Your Excellency, this upgrade from a Joint Permanent Commission to the Bi-National Commission is a commendable development as we continue watering our relationship, our partnership. We're grateful to your leadership, Mr. President, and your team, and also to our team for making this happen. Today we are having this meeting around the Bi-National Commission. Congratulations to the teams under the leadership of President Mnangagwa, and in a small way, my support to him as my elder and senior president. Congratulations to the two countries.
Mr. President, as you touched, and just echoing what you said, our shared identity, our solidarity, our deep bonds are just beginning to grow stronger and stronger. We need to walk the path those that came before us walked in our relationship. I call the people of Zimbabwe, the people of Zambia at a people-to-people level to continue deepening this partnership.
Your Excellency, it happens at that level first. Governments are drawn from families: Zimbabwean families, Zambian families. That's where we who are elected in office come from. The strength of our partnership should be anchored at the family levels—Zimbabwean and Zambian families. Then the bond is unbreakable, almost impossible. After all, in our private meeting with the President, I was asking how his family is, how my family is. I did tell him that in Zambia, we live with ex-Zimbabweans—that's what I want to call them. A lot of colleagues that came from here in the difficult time of colonial time have made Zambia their home, and we live together and actually love to raise children by marrying each other. We're raising fantastic children.
So, Mr. President, we are truly Siamese twins. We are truly connected at the umbilical cord. What we should do is do what is natural: do many other things together. We'll be more successful when we do more things together because we have common shared resources, assets. Zambia and Zimbabwe are connected not just by roads—I didn't say road, by roads: Chirundu, Kariba, Victoria Falls. I heard what you said about the name, Your Excellency. But also Kazungula, so many other roads, the rail line, the historical BSA Company rail line, the vision from Cape to Cairo. This line comes through Zimbabwe, comes through Zambia. The iconic bridge in Livingstone in Victoria Falls, the viewing Knife Edge Bridge—excellent assets. We're connected by air. We're connected by waters. So how is it possible that the two can operate separately? It's not possible.
What we want to see now, Ministers of Finance of Zambia, Zimbabwe, is to work, and your counterparts—commerce, doesn't matter the names we call them in Zimbabwe and Zambia, but those with the functional responsibilities in finance, investments, in trade, in commerce, in culture, Your Excellency, in many other areas. Tourism, you touched on that. What we urge you is to get on with the job to do many things that are yet to be done in developing our assets: Batoka Gorge project. We're tired of talking about it. We want to see steps taken to commence the works on that asset, great asset, over 2,000 megawatts. I believe that's what we're talking about, subject obviously at the behest of climate change effects. We need to see that.
We need to see an improved, efficient, effective management of the Zambezi River Authority: the Kariba North Bank power station, South Bank, efficiencies around there. Mr. President, we cannot be talking about a mining asset in South Africa which we co-own and we're not developing that mine. The Ministers of Mines of our two countries must ensure that we get that asset into production. We need the resource endowment that is there.
Your Excellency, Mr. President, you touched on a lot of things. There are issues around the frontiers, marketing our products. In Zambia, we like referring to you here and us together, we say Zim-Zam. Zim-Zam. You hear Zambians say Zim-Zam, they're talking about Zimbabwe and Zambia. Marketing our great rare gem of resource endowment in tourism, packaging these together—get on with the work. That's what this Bi-National Commission is all about. Let's get on with the work.
Mr. President, we are here to learn. My mines team is here to learn on how you are managing lithium. I think you are ahead of us there on the lithium side. Just to let you know, Mr. President, we have embarked on a nationwide—the whole of Zambia, 752,000 square kilometers—high-resolution geophysical mapping. I want to apologize that sometimes we fly, you see yellow planes straying into Zimbabwe territory. They are friendly planes. We are doing the high-resolution geophysical mapping, and we know that some of our mineral endowments in Zambia stray into Zimbabwe—I'm talking of seams. And it's true that Zimbabwean mineral occurrences also, the veins come into Zambia. That's true. So we would like to manage these resources together, Mr. President, exploit them in a way that will benefit the Zimbabwe economy, the Zambian economy, our two peoples, to help grow our economies.
That also entails security cooperation, Mr. President. We chatted about it in our holding room there. We would like the two security groups—and we broadly say security, all types of security—to deepen your cooperation. That's our instruction. That's our instruction. Where you feel there is a gray area, reach out to each other, conduct joint assessment missions. You're welcome to do that in Zambia, and I know we're welcome to do that in Zimbabwe. I say joint, so that you can fill the gaps on information, gray areas, and create an environment for the two countries to focus on our growth agenda for the Zim-Zam economy. You heard what I said: Zim-Zam economy. Our two economies, Mr. President.
