PRESIDENT KIKWETE'S TOUR OF THE US HAS OPENED UP TANZANIA TO THE WORLD

CURRENTLY on a tour of the United States that has included Tanzania's participation to the US-African Leaders Summit, President Jakaya Kikwete has touted a powerful investment package to American investors.

At various forums while in the US, the president has been displaying the country's investment briefcase replete with more than 50 projects with about 12 billion US-dollar investment requirement for possible partnership.

They include three railway projects with an investment requirement of over 8 billion dollars and three airport ventures that need more than 600 million dollars.

The past one or two decades have witnessed a flurry of investment opportunities that have attracted serious investments and continue to attract potential investors from all over the world.

Representatives from a host of US businesses who attended the Tanzania Investment Forum in Washington on Tuesday heard of the existence of three special zone and three special economic zone projects that require investment of more than 120 million dollars and over 1.2 billion dollars, respectively.

Our investments hinge around such activities as large-scale agriculture, industries, mines, textiles, food and beverages production, oil and gas, cement production, ranching/dairy farming, agricultural processing and tanneries.

The list is an exhaustive one. Tanzanians have seen the fruits of such efforts by President Kikwete to woo foreign investors to Tanzania, with direct results measured in terms of achievements in agricultural and industrial processing, mining sector, food processing, cement production, drug manufacturing and an assortment of other essential products.

Despite the great agricultural awakening in which both smallscale and large-scale have embarked on production of various food crops, ensuring constant and reliable stocks at the country's granaries, thousands of hectares of arable land still lie idle all over the country.

Most industries that had been opened in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s either ceased production or underwent a sickening slowdown and retreat due to lack of capital, modern technical knowhow, operational bureaucracy and mismanagement.

It is only in recent years when the country started witnessing an industrial revival that has had a greater impact in turning around our economic fortunes for the better.

Yet much more remains to be done before we attain our industrial development targets as we struggle to extricate ourselves from the LDC group status, which we seem to be fast overcoming. Let's continue with the grand effort.