President Kikwete has received a draft constitution, which will
reintroduce a leadership code that bars civil servants from engaging in
private business if passed. Photo/FILE
By ADAM IHUCHA Special Correspondent
In Summary
- The Asian giant is not only the biggest foreign investor, but its investment is mainly in infrastructure — road construction, railways, ports, gas pipeline, buildings and electricity such as wind power farm.
China has emerged as one of the largest investors in Tanzania.
The Asian giant is not only the biggest foreign
investor, but its investment is mainly in infrastructure — road
construction, railways, ports, gas pipeline, buildings and electricity
such as wind power farm.
Statistics from the Tanzania Investment Centre
show that China’s total direct investment in Tanzania reached $700
million in 2011, ranking sixth among the foreign investment resources.
By the end of June 2013, China’s total direct investment in Tanzania was $2.17 billion.
China has created the largest job opportunities in
Tanzania — 150,000 directly created local jobs. Bilateral trade between
China and Tanzania was over $2.5 billion in 2012, official data shows.
Open Data for International Development (AidData)
also shows that Beijing has become Tanzania’s largest single trading
partner — in 2012 it accounted for 15 per cent of Dar’s trade, valued at
$2.47-billion — and its second-largest source of investment.
More recently, Tanzania and China signed as many
as 19 contracts, reportedly worth billions of dollars. The key component
of the deals closed in March 2013 is the building of a
multibillion-dollar port at Bagamoyo, northwest of Dar es Salaam.
Bankrolled by the state-owned Exim bank to the
tune of $10 billion, the dock is designed to be largest and most
ultra-modern in Africa.
Details show that the harbour is anticipated to be
ready by 2017 and will handle 20 times more cargo than Dar es Salaam
port, the current major import and export gateway in East Africa,
competing with Mombasa.
China-state-run-firm Merchants Holdings also
secured a contract to build a 34km road between Bagamoyo and Mlandizi,
which will link the port to Tanzania’s internal rail network and the
Tanzania-Zambia Railway.
A Chinese $1.2 billion soft loan for a 523km line
connecting Dar es Salaam and the Mtwara gas field was signed in
September 2012 between Tanzanian and the Exim Bank. Details show that
the loan has a 33-year maturity and a low interest rate of 2 per cent.
AidData also reports that, between 2001 and 2011, mineral-rich Tanzania got $4.6 billion in Chinese funding.
China’s state-owned Sichuan Hongda Group went into
a $3 billion joint venture with Tanzania’s National Development
Corporation to exploit a major iron-coal mine.
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