Diaspora holds meeting in Dar

Dar es Salaam. Tanzanians living abroad began meeting Dar es Salaam yesterday to discuss the challenges they are facing and propose solutions to problems bedevilling the country.

The First Diaspora Homecoming Conference 2014 also involves stakeholders from the business community, who were expected to present papers on the changing face of investment in Tanzania, policy and business environment.

President Jakaya Kikwete said when opening the two-day meeting that Tanzanians living abroad could contribute significantly to the country’s development through remittances and investment. “There is no country in the world that has developed without investment.  You therefore need to invest in your country and convince more investors to come in bigger numbers to our country in order to boost our development,’’ he said, adding that they should also look for external markets for locally produced goods.

According to Mr Kikwete, about 200 million people live outside their countries across the  world.

In 2013, remittances totalled about Sh581 billion and  Sh681 billion is expected to be remitted by 2016.

President Kikwete said the government collected Sh10.2 million from Tanzanians living overseas in 2011.  In comparison,  Sh1.3 billion was collected in neighbouring Kenya.

“Our country is still not doing well because we have very few Tanzanians living in abroad, and this is because our country is peaceful thus people do not leave the country, unlike other countries,’’ he said.