TRADE, Industries and Investments Minister Innocent Bashungwa has appealed to Tanzanians to grab attractive investment opportunities by increasing production to enable the nation get raw materials that are crucial for stimulating its industrialization drive.
Similarly, he challenged Kagera Region residents to tap economic benefits due to its geographical location.
The region shares borders with four East African Community (EAC) member states-Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and Kenya across Lake Victoria.
Mr Bashungwa made the appeal on Thursday when he visited several tea farmers and later addressed workers at the Kagera Tea Company in Maruku Ward, in Bukoba Rural District.
He reiterated the government’s commitment to rehabilitate and expand several airports, including Bukoba Airport, and building a new ship that will operate in Lake Victoria.
“The fifth phase government under President John Magufuli’s leadership is keen to improve infrastructure like roads and bridges especially in border regions, including Kagera. This will attract investment opportunities, including foreign markets. The roads will also ease the transport of people and goods. Completion of the projects will enhance economic and social development.
This would invite investors to contribute to the industrialization drive through modern agriculture, a key priority for the fifth phase government. Industries that produce goods for mass consumption such as clothes, textiles and edibles are highly encouraged. President Magufuli’s administration has embraced industrialization as part of the panacea for unemployment among the youth, because the industrialization drive is expected to be one of the significant remedies by creating thousands of job opportunities across the country, ” he said.
He noted that without an efficient industrial base, the country’s economy could hardly develop and create job opportunities.
“Industries have great potential of creating jobs and attracting capital, skills and knowledge… industrialisation is the way to prosperity…national development cannot be imported; it must come from within,” he said.
Regional Chairman of Kagera Smallholder Tea Growers, Association (KSTGA), Nestory Rugakingira, informed him that the farmers were demanding about 40m/-for their tea which was sold on credit to Kagera Tea Company (KTC) between October and December, this year.
Acting Kagera Tea Company General Manager, Mr Abel Ndundulu, assured the minister that the company would start paying the farmers their dues on Monday.
Mr Bashungwa assured farmers in the country of getting attractive prices, noting that coffee, tea, bananas, cassava and groundnuts were among crops in high demand in several foreign markets, including in China and Indonesia.
