Tanzania inks $1.3bn railway deal with Chinese firms

The Tanzania-Zambia Railway (Tazara) also called the Uhuru Railway.

File

By  AFP

Tanzania on Friday signed a $1.3-billion deal with two Chinese companies for building a section of a railway aimed at linking its main port to neighbouring countries.

President John Magufuli and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi oversaw the signing of the contract at an event broadcast live on state television.

The deal involves the fifth section in a 2,561-kilometre railway whose construction began in 2017.

The overall plan is to link the Indian Ocean port of Dar es Salaam to Mwanza on Lake Victoria, with eventual spurs to Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda.

The Chinese firms will build a 341-kilometre section between the port city of Mwanza on Lake Victoria and Isaka in the northwest, according to Tanzanian Transport Minister Leonard Chamuriho.

"This signing is a clear testimony of the friendship between Tanzania and China," Chamuriho said at the event.

The builders will be China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation and China Railway Construction Limited.

Chamuriho invited Chinese companies to bid for the final two phases of the railway and also urged the country to assist in financing the project, currently being paid for by the Tanzanian government.

Turkish company Yapi Merkezi is already constructing the first two phases involving over 700 kilometres from Dar es Salaam.

The Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who is on a two-day visit to Tanzania, said ties were strengthening between the two nations.

Chinese companies have built several major infrastructure projects in Tanzania worth about $10 billion.

"I ask Chinese companies to make sure they implement projects with required standards. They should actually put the interest of Tanzania first," said Wang.

"Tanzania is on the right track with projects it's implementing because you cannot develop without good infrastructure," he said.

After the signing ceremony Magufuli said he had asked China to support the financing of the construction of a controversial hydropower plant in the Selous Game Reserve.

"I have also asked China to consider waiving some debts and I believe they will work on that through their concessions," he said.

China is the biggest investor in Africa, pumping about $148 billion in railroads, ports and airports in exchange for securing oil and commodity supplies such as copper and cobalt, according to data from the China Africa Research Initiative (CARI) at Johns Hopkins University. 

These infrastructure projects are built through vast loans issued by China, but Beijing has been criticised for lending too much to poor countries, without scrutinising their ability to repay.