Local project deals corridor: TIC leads Chinese investors

The delegation yesterday held a meeting with a large group of local investors and traders, convened by the Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC), the China-Africa economic and trade cooperation forum and the China-Tanzania economic, trade and investment exposition.

Mafutah Bunini, the TIC director of investment services, said the conducive investment environment has attracted many Chinese businessmen and their number is expected to double soon.

For many years, China has been leading in large investments since TIC started registering projects from the Far Eastern country, he said, noting that the meeting was intended to bring together the two groups of businessmen to exchange ideas on where they can put up joint ventures.

TIC statistics since 1997show that China leads with $11bn worth of investments, he said, elaborating that the chairman of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce had assured him that another team of businessmen would be arriving soon to look for opportunities.

The meeting would set out procedures for investing, joint ventures, cargo clearance at the port, along with reinforcing awareness on investment laws, regulations and procedures, he stated.

Charles Itembe, the Economic Processing Zone Authority (EPZA) director general, said the flow of investors shows the significance of government efforts to attract new foreign investments.

EPZA hosts 35 companies with projects valued at $2m, spanning sectors like mining and crop value addition, with the firms having created 20,000 direct jobs, he said, underlining the need for reinforcing investment incentives for higher foreign direct investment (FDI) flows.

He referred to the strategic importance of the United States African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) market where a vast market opportunity exists, while the United Kingdom is working on a protocol to enable farm produce in particular to enter its markets duty free.

The East African region holds promise with good use of existing opportunities, where partnership with Chinese firms could help, he said, while Feng Zhenyu, the visiting CCC vice-chairman praised the investment environment, which attracted a large number of Chinese firms seeking opportunities and likely joint ventures.

Agricultural and mining sectors have vast opportunities, thus the delegation is meeting with government institutions and businessmen to see how to invest, while the TIC one stop centre is an additional attraction, he added