NEW THRUST FOR INDUSTRIAL PARKS

Executive Director of the Tanzania Private Sector
Foundation (TPSF), Mr Godfrey Simbeye.

Private sector players in the country have appealed to the government to amend the Special Economic Zone Act and the Tanzania Investment Act to enable the country set up modern industrial parks to attract more investments, particularly from China.

The Executive Director of the Tanzania Private Sector Foundation (TPSF), Mr Godfrey Simbeye, made the call in Dar es Salaam yesterday ahead of one-day working visit by China’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Wang Yi, who is expected in the country today.

“The current model of Special Economic Zones in Tanzania is not suitable for attracting massive investments in terms of industries from China which has proved to boast of immense capital to invest in other countries,” Mr Simbeye noted.

Mr Simbeye as well urged the government to form a team of facilitators from the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Finance and Planning to formulate business models of successful industrial parks from China.

“Through this facilitation, we will be able to do away with unpredictable fiscal policies and overlapping of functions among regulatory bodies,” Mr Simbeye explained.

The TPSF top executive noted further that the visit by the Chinese minister is a window of opportunity for Tanzania to access the 60 billion US dollars pledged by China for industrialisation and improvement of infrastructure in four selected countries in Africa.

During the Sixth Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) meeting in South Africa in 2015, Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged the said amount to four African countries namely Tanzania, South Africa, Kenya and Ethiopia.

“If we put in place favourable investment climate to boost competitiveness, then we will be able to attract more that the 200 factories which are expected from China and this will enable Tanzania to attain middle-income economy by the year 2025,” he remarked.

Mr Simbeye as well urged the government to embark on ‘entrepreneurship diplomacy’ with China to enable Tanzania to acquire skills and technology to develop industries. At the same occasion, the TPSF’s Head of Investment and Enterprise Development, Mr Edward Furaha, cited Ethiopia as among African countries that have emulated China’s industrial parks to boost industrialisation. “These parks, which consist linked factories, facilitate and make it easy for regulatory regimes and investors,” Mr Furaha stated.

Meanwhile, Mr Simbeye revealed that the government of China had offered the private sector in Tanzania a whole floor in a building located in the sprawling port city of Guangzhou to enable smooth linkage of Tanzania and China’s business communities.

Daily News