Indian investors are increasingly seeking investment opportunities in Tanzania in their quest to grab the opportunities that come with President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s pro-business sentiments.
Data from the Indian High Commission in Dar es Salaam show that the value of goods and services imports from India to Tanzania had reached Sh2.77 trillion a year.
This is equivalent to an annual increase of 11.2 percent.
Speaking in Dar es Salaam at the weekend, the Indian High Commissioner to Tanzania, Mr Binaya Srikanta Pradhan, said major Indian businesses were seeking to increasingly expand their operations in Tanzania.
Areas of focus include energy, seaports, health – including specialised health-care – agriculture, manufacturing, education, oil and gas and agriculture, among others.
“President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s administration has been promoting good investment policies and as a result, everybody is now noticing and talking about Tanzania,” he said.
He said the Indian High Commission in Dar es Salaam was receiving a lot of commercial queries from Indian investors who want to invest Tanzania.
He said due to the existing demand of specialists in the health care sector from Tanzanian to India Indian hospital operators were also looking up to establishing their super specialty hospitals and pharmaceutical plants in Tanzania.
“We believe many of these discussions would result in concrete investments,” said Mr Pradhan.
He thanked President Hassan’s administration for coming up with reforms that will help future investment and promised that India will continue to strengthen the good relationship it has with Tanzania.
Bank of Tanzania (BoT) figures show that the value of Tanzania’s exports of goods and services to India was Sh1.214 trillion in 2021 from Sh1.212 trillion in 2020.
Tanzania exports mainly dried leguminous vegetables, cashew nuts, gold, cloves and timber to India while it major imports from the Asian country include: petroleum and oil obtained from bituminous minerals, medicament, cane or beet sugar, electrical transformers, static converters and inductors as well as motorcycles and cycles fitted with an auxiliary motors.
India is also a good source of Tanzanian international tourists, being among the top three nontraditional visitors source.
– Citizen