Tanzania president Suluhu set for official visit to China next week

Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu. She will go on a state visit to China starting November 2, 20022. PHOTO | STR | AFP

By APOLINARI TAIRO

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Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu will go on a state visit to China next week, targeting to strengthen bilateral cooperation in key economic areas, mostly in agriculture, industrial development, trade and infrastructure.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry announced on Thursday that President Suluhu’s visit will start on Wednesday November 2, 20220 to Friday November 4.

 President Suluhu’s visit follows an official invitation by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

President Xi will host a welcoming ceremony for the Tanzanian president after which both leaders will hold bilateral talks and jointly attend a signing ceremony of cooperation documents, Chinese Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson Mao Ning said.

The Tanzanian embassy in Beijing, through its official Twitter handle, on Thursday evening confirmed President Suluhu’s planned visit.

Areas of focus

Suluhu’s visit to China is expected to focus mostly on agriculture, infrastructure projects, industrialisation, supply chain, import and export of agricultural products as well as agricultural processing.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and the chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee Li Zhanshu will also meet with President Suluhu for discussions, Mao said.

"We believe President [Suluhu's] visit will inject new impetus into the comprehensive and profound development of China-Tanzania relations and make new progress in bilateral friendship and cooperation," said the spokesperson.

Building of the Bagamoyo port is a key infrastructure project that China is lobbying after the Tanzanian government expressed its willingness to revive the once abandoned mega port project.

Set up industries

The China Merchants Holding International (CMHI) had planned to set up 190 industries and 700 business units within the Bagamoyo Special Economic Zone before the project was stopped.

CMHI said in its earlier report that, the Bagamoyo SEZ was part of its investments in Kenya, Ethiopia, Togo, Nigeria and Djibouti.

Tanzania and China had agreed to develop the mega port project in 2013 during the official visit of President Xi Jinping.

On 7 June 2019, the late former president John Magufuli, in a meeting with businessmen held at the State House in Dar es Salaam, said that the conditions of the contract for the construction of the Bagamoyo port was the prohibition of Tanzania to develop any port along the coast of Tanzania running from Tanga to Mtwara.

But shortly after taking over the presidency last year, Suluhu directed her government to negotiate again with the Chinese and Omani investors then revive the stalled Bagamoyo port project.