AfricaPress-Tanzania: TANZANIA last week hosted Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who during his stay in the country held a two-day visit to strengthen long time friendly relations between Tanzania and China.
In his remarks, Mr Wang said: “Tanzania has had a special place in the history of China’s foreign relations. For the people of my age, stories about the China-Tanzania friendship left an indelible mark on our youthful mind.”
It is gratifying to note with pride that the friendly relations and cooperation between Tanzania and China continue growing in strength and scope, thanks to the firm commitments of one leadership generation after another to maintain and take them to higher levels.
The Sino-Tanzania relations are strategically of cumulative economic benefits if we as Tanzania can penetrate the Chinese market that in total has more people than Africa countries combined. What a blessing!
President John Magufuli in his speech listed opportunities open for those interested in exporting to china and stressed a need to trade in value added goods that can fetch more foreign exchanges and create jobs to Tanzanians.
Tanzania’s agricultural sector, which employs over 70 per cent of the workforce and contributes about 30 per cent to GDP, was given attention in terms of enhancing its contribution to economic growth.
Among the crops that President Magufuli mentioned were cashew nuts, coffee, tea, cassava, fish, industrial fish products and cotton.
These are a few crops if Tanzanian farmers and industrialists and in particular the private sector give particular attention and investing in value addition can easily penetrate the huge Chinese market.
China with over 1.5 billion people compared to more than 1.2 billion people of the whole African continent is a huge potential market for Tanzanian exporters particularly of agriculture goods to boost their earnings.
However, much as the Chinese market could be money spinning for Tanzanian exporters, following few key areas pointed above and other opportunities that may arise it is important to abide by market rules.
Tanzanian exporters must carefully assess requirements determined by Chinese importers because as the present state of the global economy and its intricate value chain fails to conform to terms and conditions of importers can pose some regulatory challenges.
Therefore, as time passes by, cooperation between Tanzania and China will most likely create many more business opportunities for Tanzanian businesses and bring about massive multiplier effects.
