Tanzania: Investors, Come En Masse Tanzania Doors Are Open

opinion

WHEN the Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC) was established in 1997 by the Tanzania Investment Act to be 'the Primary Agency of the Government to

coordinate, encourage, promote and facilitate investment in Tanzania, and to advise the Government on investment policy and related matters,' the sole aim was to woo and sustain the presence of the investors once in the country.

To reinforce this President John Magufuli in his regional tours of Lindi, Ruvuma and Njombe amongst, precisely reinstated that the country wants investors en masse to come and invest in Tanzania.

His school of thought was that, just like any part of the world, Tanzania can not operate in isolation, but must welcome foreigners to invest their capital, skills and all sorts of development traits this country still requires.

Once a respectable multinational company inaugurates a new project in a developing country like Tanzania, it is usually a cause for celebration- especially when the project won't hurt the environment and in turn will create jobs to the locals and pay taxes and bring needed foreign currency.

The list may be long and more subtly their advanced technologies will spread and help the locals to also advance, hence, any government staff, who would try to be an obstacle to them would not be tolerated.

Whichever way one may look at it, any public servant official who tries to block the spirit of welcoming investors by enacting for them unnecessary bureaucracy and red tape is simply an enemy of the people, in another anti-development in a democratically elected government being for the people, of the people and by the people.

If in doubt, think of the number of jobs direct and indirect an international clothing company (investor) coming to your village to set up a factory would create, or a mining giant breaking ground near your village to mine for gold and sell it abroad.

Obviously, they will generate benefits that go beyond their own businesses-in technical jargon; they would generate "spill-overs" for the rest of the village and the country's economy.

So, what the fifth phase government is doing is for the general benefit of the people to attract "foreign direct investment," so that every citizen gets the spillovers.

Local entrepreneurs ought to also know that today, most foreign investment is linked to something called "global value chains," is an idea that most of the products that consumers buy-say, cars- are made up of parts and designs produced in different countries and shipped across borders to a final assembly site, in another word would guarantee them ready market.

Because of low capacity and capitals, local entrepreneurs ought to also know that joint-ventures between them and the foreigners will make them also realize faster spill-overs than projects paid and run only by themselves.