By TZ Business News Staff.
Tanzania President Samia Suluhu Hassan has promised solutions to six problems investors face in Tanzania–problems which include Government bureaucracy, difficulties to obtain work permits and a hostile taxation environment.
She made the promise on Wednesday, April 21, 2021 at State House in Dodoma when talking to leaders of the Chinese Business Chamber of Tanzania, a Tanzania-based organization comprising of Chinese businesses which operate in the country.
The President said her Government will co-operate with Chinese investors and will improve the business and investment environment in order to benefit both two sides.
A State House statement made available to the media after the talks quotes the President as telling the Chinese businessmen: “The Government will deal with the various challenges which stifle investment; challenges which include
difficulties in obtaining work permits, taxes, delays in payments, bureaucracy, challenges faced by local products and imported products.”
The President also said her Government will continue to take precautions against Covid-19. The Chinese delegation to State House in Dodoma was led by Chinese Business Chamber of Tanzania Chairman Janson Huang (pictured below).
Chamber leaders identified five areas of interest to Chinese investment in Tanzania. The areas include phone manufacturing, pharmaceuticals manufacturing, Automobiles, creation of industrial parks and the provision through Chinese sponsorships of engineering and tourism education to Tanzanians in Chinese and Tanzanian institutions.
The State House statement says President Samia Suluhu Hassan and her guests discussed “various issues”. But the statement does NOT say whether or not the question of screening for rogue Chinese investors like Yang Feng Glan, the Queen of Ivory came up in the discussions.
Tanzania is China’s largest aid recipient country in Africa, the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, says on its website, listing success stories in the friendship like the Tanzania-Zambia Railway (Tazara), Friendship Textile Mill, Mubarali Rice Farm, Mahonda Sugar Cane Factory and Kiwira Coal Mine which became a ghost town on account of poor management when the Chinese left.
The Tanzania-China friendship dates back to 1961 when Tanganyika got independence; And yes, a track record of a strong bond exists, according to the Embasy. In December, 1997, China Investment and Trade Promotion Center was established in Tanzania.
Many protocols are signed between Tanzania and China. The Barter Trade Protocol between China and Tanzania was signed in March 1984; The Agreement on the Establishment of a Joint Economic and Trade Commission was signed in August 1985; The Framework Agreement between China and Tanzania for the Provision of an Interest-Subsidized Preferential Credit by China to Tanzania was signed in 1996 and 1997, according to the Chinese Embassy.
But Tanzania has also experienced waves of crime committed by this ‘friend’, suggesting that some of the Chinese who come into Tanzania are actually enemies of this country.