Israel ready to fork out $1bn grant to Tanzania

QUESTION: We have recently witnessed new efforts to renew relationship between Tanzania and Israel. What has exactly changed?

ANSWER. First of all, it is President Magufuli factor. There is no doubt that he wanted to get closer to us. He has the intention to strengthen the relationship between the two countries. The second factor is the importance of Tanzania to Israel. For a long time, the relations seized after former President Julius Nyerere cut the relations. Tanzania is a big country with potential natural resources and we would like to partner. Tanzania is also important and friend in fighting in the international arena. Tanzania can help advocating for us in the African Union, United Nations etc.

QUESTION: How important is Tanzania to Israel?

ANSWER: Indeed, Tanzania is of high importance to Israel. We actually have some aspects we want to push forward as far as our relations are concerned. A good example is tourism, especially in Zanzibar which is receiving close to 40,000 Israel visitors every year. This is an impressive number but I believe this is just a starter. We can do more.

Basically, there are two things we can do to increase the number. First is extending the visits to other destinations like Serengeti, Kilimanjaro, Ngorongoro and many other places in the continent. By the end of the process, the idea is to have direct flights between Tanzania and Israel, specifically when the volume is big enough. Again, this is an opportunity for the airlines, be it Air Tanzania or any other.

The second area is strengthening the relations on all aspects and this is being done nicely so far, especially after Tanzania opened the embassy in Israel. Of course, we can do more but we signed agreement on mutual cooperation on issues of defence and security last year. There is a very good cooperation in this area especially counter-terrorism. We now want to move into humanitarian and economic activities and here Tanzania can show its needs and we will show our capabilities. For humanitarian activities, we suggested to convene roundtable dialogue between our people to see the needs and capabilities.

What kind of economic activities Israel can cooperate with or support Tanzania?

This is a bit complex because we need some economic agreements like investment protection, custom cooperation and at a later stage, financial protocol. I wanted to meet the President (John Magufuli) here, but not this time, to let him know that we want to put some concessional grants in Tanzania. This is the money which doesn’t create debt and the country can invest in any development project. Of course, there are criteria like avoiding laundering of the money, project must be priority area of the government and the government must be responsible of implementation. We have done this in Uganda and we see great success. They constructed three high-tech centres and colleges.

How much can you offer in the concessional grants?

We have done to the tune of $500 million (about Sh1.1 trillion) in Uganda and I think we can give up to $1 billion (about Sh2.3 trillion) but we have to start somewhere. The issue here is meeting the criteria that will enable a country to get more and more. For instance, if you decide to use the money to build a college and charge students, you should invest the money in building another college. So, it’s a kind of revolving fund.

Which other economic activities where Israel and Tanzania can cooperate?

Yes, I know that this country has a lot of agricultural resources and we would start working on the agricultural extension. The idea is to identify some areas that are suitable to us to start supporting agriculture extension by training leading farmers, instructors of the ministry of agriculture etc.

The second phase is about increasing commercial agriculture. Here, we want to double the number of Tanzanian students going to Israel under a special programme for learning modern agriculture. About 40 students were being enrolled every year and we doubled the number to 100. We now want to double this to between 200 and 250.

These students stay there for 11 months and their learning is sponsored by the Israel government. When they come back, they use their seed money to establish modern agriculture and sometimes the government of Israel supports them with more capital. All these are young Tanzanians with bachelor degrees in agricultural studies.

You said Tanzania is very important to Israel and yet you have no embassy in Dar es Salaam. What is the plan?

This is a very tragic story because between 1967 and 1973, all African states– except Malawi, Swaziland and South Africa - cut relations with Israel. Those days Israel had 32 missions and you know, for a small country like ours it was a huge investment. Later on, one by one started restoring relations, and today we have 11 embassies including the one launched in Rwanda some two months ago. Those historical circumstances prevented us from having an embassy here but it is our priority to establish the mission here. It can take some time but it’s our priority. It is a process because you need money as well as human resources. In fact, last year we closed seven embassies in the world but we plan one in Tanzania. Rwanda is also a very unique case. It was not our problem; it is history that necessitated the situation.

How do you assess business relationship between Tanzania and Israel?

The relation is very much limited because Israel has no much it can export to Tanzania and vice-versa. The best we can do is to cooperate. Our people can produce for the local consumption as well as for exports. As I said earlier, there are close to 40,000 Israel tourists visiting Zanzibar every year and we can always increase the number.

What can Tanzania learn from Israel’s success in terming corruption?

Corruption is everywhere at different levels and fighting against it is crucial. In Africa, corruption is huge as billions of dollars are lost. I cannot teach how to go about it but what I say is that fighting corruption goes hand in hand with patriotism. Sometimes it needs to educate people about corruption. I understand President John Magufuli is fighting it in the right way.

What does US relocation of its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem last year mean to the peace process with Palestine?

Jerusalem has been our capital for 3,000 years since the time of King David. So we don’t need somebody to tell us that this is our capital. The fact that the United States relocated to Jerusalem is a very good sign because it’s living the free world. There is no doubt that Jerusalem is our capital as the government, parliament other offices including embassies of other countries are there.

When do you think Israel will have peace with Palestinians? Don’t you think to give them (Palestinians) the status of an independent state is the answer?

The peace process has totally stuck and as a result we have no relations nowadays. The issue is that Palestinians themselves are divided. No understanding between Hamas and Palestinian Liberation Organisation. When it comes to negotiations, they come with pre-conditions and make it difficult. The process will take time but will regain.

All in all, Hamas do not recognize the right for Israelis to exist. How do you negotiate with such people? We recognize Palestine but it will never become an independent state until we feel we are safe. The days to continue killing us are numbered.