MINISTER for Industries, Trade and Investments, Mr Charles Mwijage has called Moroccan investors to direct their capital in agriculture and development of industries in the country.
Mr Mwijage was speaking amid the ongoing
three-day state visit of Moroccan King, Mohamed VI in the country. He
said his visit to Tanzania is set to boost bilateral investment and
strengthen economies of the two countries.
Mr Mwijage said the government is
looking forward to convince Moroccan investors to focus on agriculture
sector in the country. He said Bank of Africa (BOA) in Tanzania is
expected to get a big boost after the visit of King Mohamed VI and that
probably, Tanzanians will manage to get low interests loans.
“We want Moroccan investors to focus on
agriculture and invest in agriculture bank, this will help to boost
agriculture sector in the country,” he said.
He said many countries across the World
are looking for investment areas especially in agriculture and that
Moroccan investors could use the opportunity to invest and export
processed agriculture products from Tanzania.
“Morocco is a fifth largest economy in
Africa, this means they are strong economically, therefore they can team
up with Tanzania investors to boost our economies,” said Mr Mwijage.
He added that Morocco is one of the
strong countries that have invested in petrol and petrol chemicals and
that their knowledge could be used to boost energy sector in Tanzania.
Moreover, the minister said Morocco is
also looking forward to establish direct flight from Rabat to Dar es
Salaam. He said the direct flight is expected to attract traders,
tourists and other passengers to and from Tanzania.
The Minister added that Moroccan
investors are also focusing at energy sector and that probably they will
help to boost the sector. However, the Minister expressed his
disappointment with poor response from local investors who appear to
team up with their counterparts from abroad.
According to Mr Mwijage, his office has
already instructed Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC) and Tanzania Trade
Development Authority (Tan- Trade) to address the problem and make sure
Tanzania traders are participating fully in business related activities
especially when there are foreign investors in the country.
“I am very troubled with this matter,
very few Tanzanians appears to exchange ideas and expertise with foreign
investors, I have instructed Tantrade and TIC to work on the matter, we
want Tanzanian investors to effectively exploit opportunities,” he
said.
Morocco is Africa’s fifth largest
economy yielding a gross domestic product of 169.8bn/-US dollar. Much of
Morocco’s wealth stems from the services industry, meaning a large
portion of their GDP is obtained from mining, construction, and
manufacturing.
This isn’t uncommon for many African
nations, as many of them at least partially rely on the export of some
valuable natural resource to drive their economy. In Morocco’s case,
they rely on the export of phosphate, a natural resource often used as a
vital ingredient in fertilisers, pesticides and animal feeds.
Morocco mines phosphates, barite,
cobalt, fluorspar and lead. Also similarly to many other African
nations, agriculture plays a crucial role in driving Morocco’s economy,
with their leading exports being tomatoes, oranges and olives.
The rapid development of Morocco’s
economy has in recent years resulted in a growth of over 4 percent
annually, decidedly making them one of Africa’s richest nations.
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