THE //Kharas Regional Council and the Northern Cape province held a two-day meeting at Kimberly, South Africa, to strengthen bilateral relations and economic cooperation.

The two signed a twinning agreement in 1999 to stimulate economic and trade relations as well as deal with social, economic and local governance challenges jointly.

Acting chief regional officer for //Kharas Bennie Diergaardt said the two regions share similar geographical characteristics that can be exploited through regional integration and integrated planning and development.

Diergardt said the joint technical committee met to report on implementation, and to jointly identify new projects and come up with activity plans to jointly implement the identified projects.

"Some of these projects include student exchange programmes between the University of Namibia (Unam) and South African students studying Khoekhoegowab at Unam, knowledge exchange and best practices, infrastructure development, management of border posts and cross-border issues," said Diergaardt.

Other areas of cooperation he noted were trade and logistics, renewable energy, cultural exchanges, sports, tourism, and business exhibitions such as the Keetmanshoop Agriculture and Trade Expo.

The meeting ended on Wednesday.