DAR ES SALAAM PORT TO BECOME NATION'S BIGGEST REVENUE CONTRIBUTOR

Minister of East African Cooperation, Dr Harrison Mwakyembe.

The Dar es Salaam Port will in three years time lead in contributing to the national income if the ongoing improvements to enhance efficiency at the port are timely implemented.

The Minister of East African Cooperation Dr Harrison Mwakyembe said this in Dar es Salaam after inaugurating the first 2015 Economic Freedom of Tanzania Conference organised by Uhuru Initiative for Policy and Education.

“The government commitments to remove all red tape at the Dar es Salaam port and adoption of latest Information and Communication Technology (ICT) are progressively changing the port performance to international standards,” he said.

Dr Mwakyembe cited among others, the introduction of the Single Customs Territory (SCT) and the recent launching of the three freight wagon train routes to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda.

Block trains give bulk shippers opportunities to save on transport costs and take delivery of their consignments timely. Cargo train gives business people more options and less red tape to deal with.

This is great news for manufacturers and industrialists in Burundi and Rwanda. Formerly, business people avoided the Dar es Salaam port due to inefficiencies like unnecessary delays that increased demurrage costs, theft, outdated ICT technology that slowed customs processes in the cargo clearance.

But currently, he said evidence shows that most traders are currently turning away from other ports in favor of the Dar es Salaam port due to the increased efficiency and reduced cost of doing business. Dr Mwakyembe said of the 26 check points along the central corridor have greatly been reduced.

For example, police check points have been reduced to six and sooner or later will be three, weighbridges to five and later three of Vigwaza, Manyoni and Nyakanazi.

“We currently talk of three and three days and half to Rwanda and Burundi respectively from over ten days few years ago,” he said.

The Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) Customs Officer Mr Stambuli Myovela said at the forum that the volume of goods through the Dar es Salaam port to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Zambia, Rwanda and Burundi has increased massively.

For example statistics show that currently goods destined for DRC through the Dar port account for about 35 per cent, Zambia 24 per cent and Rwanda has gone up to 24 per cent from 22 per cent recently.

Also with the introduction of Single Customs Territory, more improvements have been witnessed. For example, in just six months of piloting the project, a total of 40 million litres of transit oil products which pass through the port and 7,000 Bakhresa trucks crossing the borders.

The Founding president and Executive Director of Uhuru Initiative for Policy and Education Mr Isack Danford said the objective behind the annual conference is to analyse and debate the cornerstones of economic freedom, voluntary exchange coordinated by markets.

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