Wednesday, December 9, 2015

MoU pushes to develop structures for embassies

ANNE ROBI
 
PLOTS owned by the government overseas are set for major development, thanks to Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and the Unit Trust of Tanzania Projects and Infrastructure Development (UTT-PID).
The MoU signed in Dar es Salaam will see the government starting to develop plots, buildings, offices and other recreational areas at the country’s embassies worldwide.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Ambassador Liberata Mulamula, made the revelation.
Speaking shortly after the signing ceremony, Ambassador Mulamula said that the move comes following a strategic plan by her ministry to collaborate with other development partners to ensure development of land and other properties of the country’s embassies overseas.
“The aim of the plan is to ensure the Ministry develops all the land and buildings being owned by our embassies in foreign countries,” she said adding that development plan will help the officials at the embassies acquire permanent residential areas.
The plan is also set to enable the Ministry set up extra offices that will be used as business offices to generate income for embassies and the country at large.
“The plan will not only help set permanent residential areas, but would help reduce the cost used by the government to rent offices for our embassies,” she noted, adding that the country currently owns 35 embassies worldwide and 25 among them have got own land and properties.
According to the PS, among the 35 embassies, the government owns several buildings for the embassy offices and residential areas under government development projects and has since reduced the cost of renting offices that have been incurred by the government.
On the other hand, UTT/PID Chief Executive Officer Dr Gration Kamugisha said the document signed will enable the unit to first identify areas to start with at the embassies and thereafter they will start developing them as required.
“We have already toured some of the embassies such as Abuja and Zambia to identify areas to be set into development motion,” he said adding that development plans will consider the availability of economic generating activities to ensure income generation

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