ARUSHA (Tanzania), March 21 (NNN-DAILYNEWS) — INDIA is set to increase its investments in Tanzania in various sectors with a focus on technology and engineering.
Already, several reputed companies from the Asian country are operating in the country in engineering and allied projects.
This emerged in Arusha at the weekend during a business forum organised by the High Commission of India in association with the Tanzania-India Business Forum (TIBF) and local business stakeholders.
The High Commissioner of India in Tanzania, Binaya Srikanta Pradhan said his country’s investments will extend to ICT and the mining sector.
According to him, India is currently the fifth largest economy in the world and it has a fairly developed technology sector.
India is the third trading partner in Tanzania and is currently one of the leading investors in the country with investments totalling 3.7 billion US dollars.
However, he insisted that the advancement of technologies, engineering and industrial development will define the coming investments.
“Our investments will extend to the agriculture, mining and pharmaceutical sectors”, he told over a hundred business stakeholders at an Arusha hotel.
Besides high ranking officials of the Indian High Commission to Tanzania and TIBF, the symposium attracted business captains from various local business bodies.
They included the East African Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture (EACCIA) and the Arusha chapter of the Tanzania Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture (TCCIA).
Pradhan added that several reputed Indian companies are already operating in Tanzania in the engineering and allied sectors.
These include L&T, Megha Engineering and Afcons which are implementing water projects in the Mainland and Zanzibar under the government of India credit line.
According to the High Commissioner, India-supported water projects worth 500 million US dollars, covering several towns in Tanzania, will begin soon.
India is also offering capacity-building training to Tanzanian professionals under its ITEC programme, with over 4,500 professionals already trained there.
Kake Dharwal, the Director of an Arusha-based logistics firm, cited the proposed Institute of Technology in Zanzibar as one of India’s support to Tanzania in the sector.
The facility is currently under construction and will admit the first batch of students to train in data science and information technology disciplines later this year.
Dharwal, who is a member of the Tanzanian chapter of the East African Business Council (EABC), appreciated the holding of business forums between the two countries.
The Deputy Minister for Minerals Steven Kiruswa said Tanzania and India recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on value addition technologies in the minerals.
Under the deal, Indian companies will assist the local firms to develop skills in mineral polishing, lapidary and gemmology.
TIBF secretary Suresh Kumar said with Tanzania and India trade blossoming, efforts must be made to ensure that products from Tanzania were of high quality.
“Our (Tanzania) products must be competitive to be able to penetrate the Indian market. We have to prove our competitiveness,” he said.
Arusha Regional Commissioner, John Mongella said trade between Tanzania and India has been on the rise in recent years.
“It is remarkably progressive to the tune of 4.5 billion US dollars last year,” he said, noting that there was more room for increased trade and investments.
