Dar es Salaam. President John Magufuli has called upon African countries to tap into their enormous potentials including natural resources.

The head of state has made the statement when opening the 18^th   meeting of Africa-Nordic foreign affairs ministers today October 10, 2019.

Addressing the delegates at the Julius Nyerere International Convention Center, the president said although the African countries have a lot of resources like human resources and tourist attraction sites, but still they are lagging behind their Nordic counterparts.

For example, the president said not only that Tanzania has a 1424 kilometer long coastline, minerals and the longest tree in the world, but also the country hasn’t tapped into the potential.

The tallest tree in the world was discovered in a remote valley in Kilimanjaro Region, reaching a whopping 81,5 metres in height.

The tree of the Entandrophragma excelsum species is one of the few giant specimens ever identified on the African continent.

A team of German scientists used laser instruments to size 32 specimens in the region between 2012 and 2016, discovering that the ten tallest individuals ranged between 59, 2 meters and the towering 81, 5 meters behemoth; the trees were aged between 500 and 600.

“Despite having a population of around 27 million, the Nordic countries have a Growth Domestic Product (GDP) of $1.1 trillion while Africa which has a population of around 1.2 billon its GDP stands at $2.33 trillion. So, we have something to learn from the Nordic countries,” said the president.

The meeting has brought together representatives from Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkinafaso, Burundi, Comoros, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Egypt, Ethiopia and Ghana.

Other countries are Kenya, Lesotho, Mali, Malawi, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia, South Africa, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe and hosts-Tanzania. Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland and Denmark are also attending the meeting.

During the meeting participants are expected to discuss investment opportunities, trade, peace and security, crosscutting issues like climate change and development partnership among individual countries.