Kurasini industrial, logistics Park project up for grabs

Dar es Salaam. The government has finally floated a tender calling for competent strategic investors to develop the Kurasini Industrial, Trade and Logistics Park project on a standard lease arrangement.

“The authority now invites eligible local and international real estate developers or consortia to submit their expression of interest to develop the project,” said Export Processing Zone Authority (EPZA) acting director general John Mnali in an advert seen by The Citizen yesterday.

Mr Mnali said the development of the project in Kurasini, in Dar es Salaam would be implemented through the private finance initiative.

“The private finance initiative would be executed under a standard lease agreement for a specified duration,” reads part of the advert.

EPZA owns a parcel of land measuring about 56 acres (239,000 square metres) at a prime area in Kurasini Ward, Temeke District in Dar es Salaam.

He said that the private investors would set up factory warehouses, assembly facilities for completely knocked down and semi knocked down kits; break-bulk processing and packaging facilities.

Additionally, they will set up agro-processing facilities (storage and value addition platform) production facilities for assembly facilities for electronic goods, machinery, vehicles equipment and other consumables.

The area would also feature warehousing; light assembly and processing factory buildings; banking halls; agro processing facilities (storage and value addition platforms); administration and office buildings; hotel, restaurants and parking facilities.

The project will also include the construction of a One-Stop-Service-Centre (OSSC) which will house EPZA staff and other Trade and Investment Facilitation Institutions such as Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA-customs), Immigration and Labour.

Other institutions are Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS), Tea Board of Tanzania (TBT), Tanzania Smallholders Tea development Agency (TSHTDA), Tanzania Mercantile Exchange (TMX) and Tanzania Coffee Board (TCB).

The objectives for the establishment of the Kurasini Industrial, Trade and Logistic Park are to attract manufactures to establish light industries as well as to relocate manufacturing enterprises into Tanzania.

The project also was meant to facilitate transit and export trade with the East African Community (EAC), Southern African Development Community (Sadc) and the rest of the world via Dar es Salaam Port as well as facilitating transfer of technology through the establishment of a platform for manufacturing and processing industries.

It is also meant to create a platform that will link local manufactured products to the global markets and facilitate auctioning of agro-produce such as tea and coffee domestically.

Last month, Industry and Trade minister Kitila Mkumbo said it was the government’s intention that it would get a serious investor to invest in the project by the end of October.

The project is the brainchild of the Sino-Africa Cooperation meeting held in Cairo in 2009, and was earlier planned to be a trade hub and a distribution point of Chinese goods to East and Central African markets.

However, the would-be Sino-Tanzania Logistics Centre was fine-tuned recently to conform to Tanzania’s priorities.
The focus is now to make it a hub for adding value to Tanzania’s strategic agricultural products before they are exported.