China sees Tanzania as potential country for investment

Tanzania’s Ambassador to China, Mbelwa Kairuki.

TANZANIA has been highlighted among potential African countries where China has invested more than 34bn US dollars.

The investment has increased 60 times in the past 17 years. African countries including ...
Tanzania have continued to be the largest market for various goods that are imported from China.

The Chinese director of the department of West Asia and Africa Affairs in the Ministry of Commerce, Dong Wang, said good cooperation with African countries has been the strong pillars to the business success.

He was speaking during the press conference convened for Ministry’s officials and members of the media from Africa. In Tanzania, Chinese companies have invested and participated in the construction of various projects.

Some of these projects are Jiangsu Shinyanga business Park, Construction of Tanzania and Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA) and construction of Textile, Food processing industries and others.

By the end of 2013, China had invested more than $2.5bn US dollars in Tanzania, with nearly 500 Chinese companies doing business in the country. This makes China the second largest investor in Tanzania after the UK.

During President Xi Jinping’s tour in Tanzania , China signed 16 trade, cultural and diplomatic agreements with Tanzania, worth about $12 billion in total. The visit was a great boost to the economic ties between the two countries.

Xi’s visit paved the way for China to fund and build the US$10 billion Bagamoyo Port and other infrastructure project which will be able to handle 20 times more cargo than the port in Dar es Salaam and will be the largest port in Africa.

Mr Dong said China government has been conducting various programmes that have helped to train more than 8,000 Africans in various fields including infrastructure construction, industrial and others.