High prospects as Samia visit to China nears

Dar es Salaam. President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s planned state visit to China would have massive economic benefits to Tanzania, with the Chinese government promising to effectively work on all issues that would be agreed upon.

President Hassan will be on a three-day state visit to China starting November 1, 2022 whereby she is expected to hold talks with her Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on a number of issues to foster relations between their two countries.

Being the first African leader to visit China after the congress of the Chinese Communist Party re-elected Jinping as its General Secretary for another five-year term, President Hassan is widely expected to put forward some proposals that would advance the development agenda for Tanzania.

Among the issues would be the resumption of talks regarding the development of the Bagamoyo Special Economic Zone (BSEZ), complete with a fourth generation port.

Speaking in Dar es Salaam yesterday, a senior officer (Counsellor) at the Chinese Embassy in Tanzania, Mr Yang Zhiyu, said China was ready to implement all the issues that would be agreed upon during President Hassan’s visit.

“We will work as a bridge to facilitate the outcome of the meeting and we will listen to all the voices of Tanzanians on what they need and what they want,” he said during the 8th Conference on China-Africa Cooperation through FOCAC [the Forum on China–Africa Cooperation] Mechanism in Dar es Salaam yesterday.

Chinese Ambassador to Tanzania Chen Mingjian said President Hassan’s visit to China would open new prospects and bring opportunities for both countries for comprehensive strategic cooperation.

“We will take advantage of the diplomacy of the Heads of State of the two countries to strengthen high level exchange between China and Tanzania to build political mutual trust and strive to turn the plans between the two heads of states for both countries into reality,” he said.

Gracing the meeting, the minister for Trade and Industrial Development for the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar, Mr Omar Shaaban, termed the visit as ‘an opportunity to open new ventures to the country’.

“We are optimistic that we are going to take advantage of the meeting to increase trade with China. It is really something we are proud of,” he said.

According to him, China has been a supporter of Tanzania in various areas including infrastructure and education, noting that the visit will give the East African nation a chance to learn from the Asian nation’s economic success story.

“China has made huge progress in which more than 700 million people have been uplifted from poverty, accounting for over 70 percent of worldwide poverty reduction. This greatest poverty eradication success in human history must also bear impact for the African Continent, that indeed, it can be done, and that together, we can make poverty history,” he said.

According to the data of the Tanzania Investment Center (TIC), China is Tanzania’s largest source of foreign investment. Chinese investors have established hundreds of projects in various sectors, including transportation, manufacturing, mining, tourism, agriculture, fishing, agro-processing among others.

In April 2021, President Hassan met with the leaders of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Tanzania to discuss various issues pertaining to trade and investment.

The Chamber informed the Head of State that 800 Chinese companies were ready to invest in Tanzania in manufacturing, telecoms, pharmaceuticals, and automotive, and to establish industrial parks.