Africa-Press – Tanzania. BURUNDI President, Evariste Ndayishimiye has commended his Tanzanian counterpart, Samia Suluhu Hassan, on her efforts to transform the economy of the country through various initiatives to attract investments.
He made the remark yesterday shortly after laying a foundation stone for the construction of a 400bn/- Intracom fertilizer factory being built at the Nala area in Dodoma.
The Burundian top leader who is in the country for a three-day State Visit which kicked off yesterday also assured of continued cooperation as part of efforts to cement further the existing diplomatic and economic ties. `
“President Samia Suluhu Hassan is doing a good job; we want to cement further the existing cooperation for the greater interest of the two countries,” he said.
Speaking of the fertilizer factory, President Ndayishimiye assured that Tanzanians will get an equal chance in employment opportunities to be created after completion of the project.
He said they are committed to continue working together towards a prosperous future for the two countries by strengthening bilateral trade.
President Ndayishimiye invited the citizens of both countries to continue doing business across the borders, especially by investing in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry, banking, food processing sectors and transport.
Earlier, the Intracom factory Director of Commerce Nazir Nduimana said the factory is at 40 per cent of its completion set for October next year.
“Upon completion, the factory will have an annual capacity to manufacture 600,000 tonnes of natural fertilizer while creating a total of 3,000 direct employments and some 7,000 other indirect jobs,” he said.
This will be more than Tanzania’s annual fertilizer demand which currently stands at between 400,000 and 500,000 tonnes per year, as the current statistics have it that Tanzania imports 90 per cent of its fertilizers.
Tanzania uses 200 million US dollars (about 500bn/-) to import the inputs annually.
For his part, Minister of State Prime Minister’s Office (Investment) Geofrey Mwambe said the government is working on all setbacks on the investment sector, including placing supporting infrastructures at the industrial park.
He said in its efforts to smoothen the investment sector, next week the government will convene an investment forum for the sake of addressing the challenges that have been facing the sector.
“Efforts that the government has been taking on the investment sector have started paying off, because for the past six years, the Tanzania Investment Centre TIC registered a total of 164 projects worth more than 3 billion US dollars,” he said.
Trade volume between the two countries has increased to 201bn/- in 2019, up from 83.9bn/- that was recorded in 2015.
As of July this year, TIC had registered a total of 18 projects by Burundian investors worth 209bn US dollars. At least 3,544 Tanzanians have been employed in the projects registered by investors from Burundi.
During her visit to Burundi in July this year, President Samia encouraged members of the business community to utilize available opportunities in the agriculture sector in both countries, since the sector plays vital roles in creation of employment, especially for the youth.
“Tanzania has a total of 44 million hectares of fertile soil, out of it, 10 million hectares are yet to be utilized, therefore we have a great potential and promising future in the agriculture sector in Tanzania,” she noted.
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