Africa-Press – Tanzania. PRESIDENT Samia Suluhu Hassan has reaffirmed Tanzania’s commitment to continue to strengthen cooperation with the United Kingdom’s government in order to boost trade relations between the two countries.
President Samia met with Lord John Walney, the UK’s trade envoy to Tanzania at the State House in Dar es Salaam, where the two leaders discussed trade links between the two nations.
Lord Walney was in the country to attend the Tanzania-UK business and investment forum.
President Samia thanked Mr Walney for visiting Tanzania and sharing views at the forum, promising him that her government will continue to cooperate with the UK government to boost trade ties.
On his side, Mr Walney noted that the Tanzania-UK business and investment forum, which took place in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday, was a huge success and will help boost trade and investment between the two nations.
The two leaders addressed numerous trade and investment opportunities in Tanzania, including the efficiency with which Tanzanian traders may sell their products in the United Kingdom.
President Samia asked the Special Envoy of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to extend her congratulations to Boris Johnson on the remarkable success of the COP 26 summit, which has given hope to the participating countries to step up their efforts to mitigate climate change’s effects.
Meanwhile, President Samia has insisted that the government will ensure talks on the 30 billion US dollars Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project are fruitful and benefit all concerned parties.
President Samia made the remarks when she held virtual talks with Equinor Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Anders Opedal, assuring him that the government was ready to expedite the project.
Equinor and Royal Dutch Shell companies assured President Samia of their commitment to implement the project, saying negotiations with the government on the project will continue.
On November 8, a government delegation led by Energy Minister January Makamba began talks with Shell and Equinor on a Host Government Agreement (HGA) for the project.
The HGA will serve as the foundation for the entire project, establishing the economic, fiscal, and legal framework necessary for it to proceed.
Mr Makamba said the dialogue between the government and the companies Shell, Equinor, Pavillion, ExxonMobil, and Ophir on the 70 tri/- LNG project in Lindi region will change the image of our economy.
“We will report on the opportunities that will be accessible during implementation in the following weeks,” he said, adding: “We’ve been working hard behind the scenes for the past two months to get here and we’re sure that a final investment decision will come sooner than is traditionally the case.”
The LNG project entails bringing gas from three deepwater blocks to a landfall in the Lindi Region, where a liquefaction facility with a capacity of 10 million tonnes per year will be erected.
Equinor’s partner in Block 2 is ExxonMobil of the United States, which has around 20 trillion cubic feet of in-place gas resources, similar to what Shell controls in Blocks 1 and 4 with Singapore’s Pavilion Energy and Jakarta-based Medco Energi.
In another development, President Samia held talks with Dr Tony Elumelu, Chairman of the United Bank for Africa (UBA), about the bank’s operations in the country.
Dr Elumelu told President Samia that the bank is ready to address a variety of economic issues, including the financing of oil and gas projects.
Dr Elumelu was informed by Ms Samia that the government is willing to collaborate with the bank and has invited them to invest in appropriate initiatives.
Ms Samia also met with Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, Chairman of the DP World Company in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), who expressed interest in boosting trade in Tanzania in the areas of ports, transportation, industrial conferences, and the energy sector.
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