THE delegation of the European Union (EU) to Tanzania has organised a series of activities to be conducted this year for the East African nation to continue attracting more investors, enhance economy, trade and political cooperation
Some of the major events that will be conducted by the EU delegation for the year 2023 include the business forum that will bring together investors from EU member states and their Tanzanian counterparts.
The two sides that have been enjoying bilateral ties in the past 47 years.
Addressing a press conference yesterday, the head of EU delegation to Tanzania Ambassador Manfredo Fanti said the forum that will be held next month, will also play a role in attracting European investors to Tanzania.
“It will also create a way for improvement on trade cooperation between EU members and Tanzania,” he said.
“There will also be high level visits by leaders from EU member states to Tanzania as well as political dialogue to be done with the government through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation,” added the diplomat.
He went on to explain that, during the year 2022, the political cooperation between the two parties recorded a positive progress that was attributed to a visit that President Samia Suluhu Hassan made to the EU and other member states.
“Also, there were official visits by various government leaders to EU member states, also European leaders visited Tanzania, this shows that the cooperation has been so dynamic,” he explained.
In February last year, President Samia visited France and the headquarters of the European Commission (EC) in Belgium.
While in the countries, Dr Samia met with her counterparts for official talks, which enabled Tanzania to secure a grant of 425 million Euros, estimated at 1.15tri/- from the EC to fund various development projects.
The funds are to be used in various development projects for the next three years in the country, revealed President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyenwhile during a meeting with President Samia in Belgium.
A statement issued by the Directorate of Presidential Communications in February last year had it that Tanzania planned to spend the 180 million Euros equivalent to 480bn/-, on three projects, including the upgrading of digital systems.
Another area is strengthening the social well-being of Tanzanians based on gender equality where 284bn/- would be spent.
The statement further indicated that 197.3bn/- would go for the Green Cities project, whose first phase would include Tanga, Mwanza and Pemba.
Regarding the trade and economic ties, Ambassador Fanti noted that the EU continued to support Tanzania by putting in place policies that supported smooth importation of Tanzania goods and products to European countries.
He said, EU has a policy that allows free importation of goods and products that are made in Tanzania, the move aims at supporting economic growth of Tanzanian businessmen as well as increasing the balance of trade.
Moreover, the EU has been constantly supporting Tanzania’s with average grants of 105 million Euros (264.4bn/-) every year for implementation of various development programmes.
“The grants have been channeled to support various sectors such as energy, rural development, gender issues, environment and climate change business development for the private sector. We are overall pleased with the quality of implementation of the development projects in the country,” he explained.
“We are also supporting the blue economy sector at a budget of 110 million Euros (around 277bn/-) that are meant to cover three main areas such as environmental protection, sustainable use of marine resources as well as policy issues,” he noted further.
Source: allafrica.com
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