By DELPHINE ZULU –

in Entebbe, Uganda
PRESIDENT Edgar Lungu has said Zambia will soon start importing oil from Uganda following the fruitful discussion he had with his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni during his two-day State visit.
Mr Lungu said the discovery of oil could help Zambia benefit greatly by exploring possibilities of getting crude oil from Uganda via Dar-es-Salaam and finally pumping it into Ndola.
“We have agreed to revive our relationship but suffice to say, for example, the discovery of oil in Uganda could help Zambia benefit by exploring possibilities of getting crude oil, this will definitely be cheaper for Zambia,” he said.
Mr Lungu said a lot of opportunities had been lost without being interrogated because both countries had closed each other’s doors.
He was speaking to journalists shortly before departure for Zambia, at Entebbe airport.
And the two Heads of State have agreed to revive their relations with President Museveni accepting President Lungu’s invitation for him to visit Zambia.
Mr Lungu said Zambia would take advantage of the revival of the JPC to be held soon to cement the duo’s bilateral relationship and with the rest of the East Africa region.
Mr Lungu also said Zambia had learnt a lot on how Uganda had managed to deal with a number of challenges surrounding landlocked countries because they faced similar difficulties.
“Uganda is a landlocked country like us and most of the difficulties faced by Uganda are like ours, so they have shown us how they have tackled that and we have seen it for ourselves, we shall emulate that,” Mr Lungu said.
Former Local Government minister, Emmanuel Chenda has described the two-day State visit as fruitful, saying Zambia stood to benefit a lot, especially in the discovery of oil and manufacturing of ARVs.
And in a joint communique, both countries agreed to revive the Fourth Session of the JPC and directed the two Foreign Affairs ministers, Harry Kalaba for Zambia and Uganda’s Oryyem Okello to convene the session on dates to be mutually agreed upon.