Africa-Press – Tanzania. THE United States (US) has affirmed its commitment to maintain its cooperation with Tanzania on different sectors especially on enhancing investment, business security and health sector.
Moreover, it has vowed to keep supporting improvement of the health sector by issuing Covid-19 vaccines under Covax facility.
Under this arrangement, the US has already donated a total of 1,058,400 doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
The assurance was issued yesterday by the Under Secretary for Political Affairs Ambassador Victoria Nuland, when she visited President Samia Suluhu Hassan at the Dar es Salaam State House.
In their talk, the US Senior envoy commended President Samia for maintaining the Tanzania-US bilateral ties, adding that the two countries have been enjoying cordial bilateral ties for the past 60 years.
She then called on the two countries to continue taking further the existing ties for the greater interest of their nationals.
On her part, President Samia assured the Senior US envoy that Tanzania through its third Five-Year National Development Plan (FYDP III) has put in place a conducive business and investment climate for the sake of attracting more investors.
She commended Ms Nuland for visiting Tanzania, assuring her of continued efforts to enhance the existing diplomatic relations in various sectors.
For over the past 20 years, the US has provided more than 7.5 billion US dollars in assistance to Tanzania, with nearly 4.9 billion US dollars being spent on improving the health of the Tanzanian people.
On 25 July this year, Tanzania received the first batch of over one million Johnson Covid-19 vaccines donated by the US government through the Covax arrangement, as the country plans to inoculate around 34 million of the population.
The population represents 60 per cent of Tanzanians, who will be vaccinated on a voluntary basis, while priority will be given to frontline health care workers, people with chronic diseases as well as adults 50 years and above.
United States Ambassador to Tanzania, Donald Wright observed that the donated vaccines are part of the US pledge to provide at least 25 million of 80 million doses globally to Africa.
Ambassador Wright said the arrival of the single shot of Johnson & Johnson Covid- 19 vaccine will help protect Tanzanian people from the ravages of the pandemic, and begin reducing barriers to building back the economy.
“We are sharing these vaccines to save lives and to lead the world in bringing an end to the pandemic. Already, President Samia has launched the vaccination campaign by taking her jab in an event that was live broadcast on Wednesday last week at State House, in Dar es Salaam. Ms Nuland is in Africa for a seven day visit to South Africa, Botswana, Tanzania and Niger.
She flew to Africa on July 31 this year and expected to conclude her tour tomorrow. In South Africa, the Under Secretary met with senior South African officials and co-chairs of the Working Group on African and Global Issues to advance shared priorities.
She received the United States’ donation of 5.66 million Covid-19 vaccine doses to South Africa, and met with civil society and business leaders.
In Botswana, the Ambassador Nuland met with President Mokgweetsi Masisi to advance partnership on democracy, the climate crisis, economic prosperity, and security in southern Africa.
Ms Nuland will finish her tour to Africa by visiting Niger, where she is expected to meet with President Mohamed Bazoum to discuss ways to improve security in the Sahel, strengthen governance, and advance inclusive economic growth.
Meanwhile, the government has maintained its position that it will meet with the opposition parties as promised by President Samia Suluhu Hassan.
According to Amb Mulamula, the government is currently dealing with the recovery of the economy amidst the Covid-19 pandemic to improve the welfare of the people.
“The agenda of the President meeting up with opposition is there to stay…since assuming office, only four months have gone.
This means there is still time to do so,” said Amb Mulamula. She pointed out that some people were impeding the good efforts done by the government to deal with the economy of the country and the people.
