Business

Zanzibar Second VP lauds China at DITF

ZANZIBAR Second Vice-President, Ambassador Seif Ali Iddipresents the overall Tanzania exhibitors' winner award to the Director of Empowerment and Facilitation of the National Economic Council (NEEC), Dr Joyce Chonjo, at the 36th Dar es Salaam International Trade Fair in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday. (Photo by Mohamed Mambo)

ZANZIBAR Second Vice-President, Ambassador Seif Ali Iddi, said on Tuesday that China is exhibiting its products to Tanzanians that the Asian nation produces goods of high quality.

Vice-President Iddi said this while officially opening the 36th Dar es Salaam International Trade Fair (DITF). He said China has brought many Chinese companies to participate in the 36th DITF to enable local traders refrain from importing fake goods.  Ambassador Iddi said imported fake and sub-standard goods was among the biggest challenges the country was facing.

"This year's exhibitions are special because we have companies from China doing a special exhibition of their products to create awareness to the public and local business people that the country produces high quality goods," he explained. He said China will do similar exhibitions of its products across Africa and Tanzania was selected to be the first, noting that this shows the good bilateral relations that Tanzania has with China.

Ambassador Iddi said DITF has provided a good ground for local and International business people to form a linkage. "I am very impressed by the Tanzania Trade Development Authority (Tantrade) for ensuring that DITF has continued to attract more and more people every year," he explained.

He also encouraged local business people to make use of market opportunities provided by the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). During the official opening, the Zanzibar second vice-president also presented awards to winners in 18 categories and overall winners, which include the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) in the category of  financial institutions, the National Economic Empowerment Council and  Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) in the category of Trade Support.

The Overall winners were the the National Economic Empowerment Council (NEEC) first position, the Vocational Education Training Authority (VETA) in position two and National Social Security Fund position three.