Local News

Investors promised better terms

Mr Raymond Mbilinyi

THE government has assured domestic and international investors and prospective ones that it will continue creating a friendly environment for them and make Tanzania an attractive destination for investment capital.

This was said by the Acting Executive Director of Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC), Mr Raymond Mbilinyi, during the launch of the World Investment Report 2012 in Dar es Salaam over the weekend.

"The government will continue formulating policies geared towards creating a better environment for investors and ensuring a win-win situation," he said after the launch of the report titled: 'Towards a New Generation of Investment policies.'

He added: "I am happy to report that investors are still confident with the effort the government of Tanzania is doing to improve the investment climate. That is why we have noted the growth of FDI inflows to Tanzania to 1,095 USD billion in 2011 contrary to the decline experienced by Africa."

He explained that the government was now required to build the capacity of domestic investors to be ready to take advantage of FDI for the sustainable development and inclusive growth.

According to the report, Africa's economic growth slowed down to 2.7 per cent in 2011 compared to 4.6 per cent in 2010, mainly due to political unrest in the North African countries.

Growth in the Sub-Sahara African countries slowed down to 5.1 per cent in 2011 compared to 5.3 in the previous year. Tanzania's real GDP grew by 6.4 per cent last year compared to 7.0 per cent in 2010. 

The slowdown in growth is largely attributed to drought conditions in some parts of the country which adversely affected agricultural production and electricity outage which contributed to low performance in the manufacturing and other economic activities that rely on electricity.

Despite the slowdown in overall growth, communication, financial intermediation, construction and education sub-sector recorded higher growth rates ranging between six per cent and 19 per cent.

The United Nations Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Tanzania, Mr Alberic Kacou, urged policy makers in Tanzania to use the investment policy framework for sustainable development detailed in the 2012 report, as a reference in formulating national investment policies.

"We believe that by using such a framework for investment policies all Tanzanians will benefit," he said.On his part, a renowned investment expert, Mr Emmanuel Ole Naiko, advised the government to seriously consider continuing providing incentives as a way to lure investors to Tanzania and gave the example of China which has attracted a huge number of investors in recent years because of providing attractive incentives.

He noted that this is very important since once a country has many investors, it creates a strong base of big taxpayers, hence development. "What is needed is to be strict and implement laws and regulations governing incentives and investment in general," he said.