Tanzania – linchpin to the African market

President Kikwete made the statement at a roundtable conference on October 28 in Hanoi discussing investment and trade opportunities for Vietnamese enterprises in Tanzania and throughout Africa.

Tanzania is a member of the African Finance and Economic Association (AFEA), which is comprised of 14 member African nations with a consumer market 400 million, Kikwete said.

The country eagerly wants to cooperate with Vietnam partners, he said, adding that it has good geographic conditions with developed infrastructure, stable politics and offers many incentives for foreign investors.

It has put forward initiatives and policies to completely overhaul and renovate its economic and financial institutions and, as a result, obtained an average annual economic growth rate of 7% over recent years, the President said.

A representative of the Tanzanian Investment Promotion Centre (IPC) in turn said the East Africa nation successfully created support corridors bolstering investment in agriculture, telecommunications, transports, mining and infrastructure construction.

It imports mainly machinery, equipment, agricultural equipment, raw materials and consumption products while it is strong at producing and exporting tea, processed fruits, cotton, coffee, iron ore, nickel, gold, diamond, and minerals, the representative said.

For his part, Hoang Van Dung, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) said the conference provided a good chance for local enterprises to seek cooperative opportunities with Tanzanian partners.

It also offered them a great opportunity to gain a better insight into trade and investment opportunities in Africa, Dung said.

In recent years, the bilateral trade volume between Vietnam and Tanzania was modest leaving ample room for growth and last year, Vietnam exporters shipped around US$25 million of goods, mainly basa fish and rice, to Tanzania, he added.