TANZANIA, EGYPT REVIVED RELATIONS PROMISE BENEFITS

President John Magufuli welcomes Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi who arrived in the country on Monday.

Tanzania is poised to reap huge benefits out of her revitalised bilateral relations with Egypt, renowned for irrigation farming, industrialisation and hydro-power generation.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi arrived in the country on Monday for a two-day working visit to cement the long-standing friendship that the two nations have enjoyed for decades, dating back to the era of the late Mwalimu Julius Nyerere and Gamal Abdel Nasser.

In his speech at the State House in Dar es Salaam on Monday, President Al-Sisi invited President John Magufuli to Cairo, stressing on the need to bolster economic and diplomatic ties between the two nations.

Trade volume between Tanzania and Egypt stands at 78 million US dollars, with Egyptian companies’ over about 900 million US dollar investments creating 956 jobs for Tanzanians.

Reports from Cairo show that trade volume between Egypt and other African countries surged to 4.8 billion dollars last year, up from 4.5 billion dollars recorded in the previous year.

Egypt’s Minister for Industry and Trade Tarek Kabil was quoted as saying that increased Egyptian exports were the main catalyst of growth in the volume of trade exchange.

Egyptian exports to African countries in 2016 generated 3.4 billion US dollars while the Arabic nation spent only 1.3 billion dollars to buy from other African economies.

“The visit by President Al-Sisi to Tanzania, Rwanda, Chad, and Gabon will present an important step towards strengthening the strategic relations between Egypt and the African countries, on both political and economic levels,” explained the minister.

Economic relation was high on the agenda during the two leaders’ meeting in State House; as Egypt gives top priority to the development of economic relations with other countries in the continent.

The economic ties are through the framework of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) and the “Continental Free Trade Area” (CFTA) between the three regional blocs--Comesa, East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

Tanzania and Egypt are also among 11 members of the Nile Basin Initiative, a body that brings together countries that use waters of River Nile. Egypt’s Ministry of Trade and Industry has in place an ambitious strategy to promote trade and investment relations with the African markets, as they are one of the most promising markets for its products.

The ministry has opened five new commercial offices in Tanzania, Ghana, Uganda, Djibouti and Ivory Coast, in addition to establishment of a logistics centre in Kenya to facilitate the movement of trade between Egypt and East Africa.

On the other hand, the two countries are already working together in various areas, including the health sector, which is set for enhancement through the cooperation of Muhimbili National Hospital and Mnazi Mmoja hospital with El Shatby hospital under Alexandria University in Egypt.

Daily News