Embassies urged to woo investors
Dar es Salaam. The Tanzania Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture (TCCIA) has challenged foreign embassies in Tanzania to help invite business communities from their countries to come and invest in the country’s key sectors.
The plea came from TCCIA president Paul Koyi during a recent meeting between
TCCIA and delegates from foreign envoys in Tanzania, including Egypt, Pakistan and Russia.
The meeting was held at the Tanzania Trade Development Authority (TanTrade) premises in the city and attended by TCCIA and TanTrade officials, as well as the envoys.
“I expect that this meeting will result into establishment of foreign investments and joint ventures between Tanzanian investors and foreign business communities in key sectors,” said
Mr Koyi. Mr Koyi also took the opportunity to inform the delegates that TCCIA has started issuing electronic Certificates of Origin (eCOs) of all goods manufactured and processed in the country for the export market, replacing the manual issuance of the export documents.
Besides, Mr Koyi said before the launch of the online-based issuance of the electronic certificates of origin, the manual system had consumed the traders’ time by physically moving between different offices collecting documents.
The TCCIA President further cited that the manual system also forced the local business community to incur extra costs in doing business attributed to manual processing of export documents in terms of administrative bureaucracies and transportation costs.
Mr Koyi also revealed that TCCIA in collaboration with Indian-based Ismartexpos Company in August this year will launch Virtual Exhibitions that will offer a platform for exhibitors from East African Community (EAC) and other destinations globally to showcase their products online to be introduced for the first time in Tanzania.
For his part during the meeting, TarTrade Director of Trade Promotion Mr Boniface Michael briefed the Ambassadors that the turnout of exhibitors who took part in this year’s DITF was low due to Covid-19 pandemic fears, noting that this year’s exhibitions was attended by only 2880 local and foreign exhibitors compared to 3770 took part in 2019.
Speaking on behalf of the delegates, Mr Mohamad Abdulghafar from Egyptian Embassy to Tanzania pledged that the Embassy in collaboration with the local government authorities will continue promoting Tanzania’s investment opportunities with a view to attracting more Egyptian companies to come and invest in the country.
After the meeting, TCCIA led by its President Mr Koyi and the delegates toured various exhibitors who have participated in this year’s the 42 Dar es Salaam International Trade Fair (DITF) commenced in the city on July 1. The exhibitions come to an end today July 13.
