President Samia Suluhu Hassan gave business leaders in Oman six reasons why they should invest in Tanzania, saying the country offers unrivaled investment opportunities.
Addressing the Oman-Tanzania Business Forum in Muscat, the President said her administration was implementing a raft of measures aimed at making Tanzania the preferred destination for foreign direct investment (FID) inflows.
President Samia cited historic blood ties, peace, stability, good governance, and a conducive environment, stable macroeconomic and fiscal policies, marketing access to the African continent, the presence of a semi-skilled labor force as well as smooth and quick facilitation of investments as key reasons for Oman investors to come to Tanzania.
“The Sultanate of Oman is a very special country to Tanzania. There is no other country on this planet with as many of its citizens who have blood relations with the people of Tanzania,” she said.
President Samia noted that the flow of two-way trade and investment between Tanzania and Oman has steadily increased over the past five years, but more should be done to improve the trade imbalance.
The President said investment flows were in favor of Tanzania, with the country registering 62 investment projects from Oman up to April 2022, with a total value of USD 308.35 Million and creating 2,489 jobs.
The Oman investment in Tanzania are in the sectors of agriculture, real estate, construction, mining, human resource, tourism, manufacturing, services, transportation, telecommunication and infrastructure development.
President Samia is in Oman at the invitation of the Sultan of Oman, Haitham bin Tariq Al-Said.
Foreign direct investment refers to direct investment equity flows in the reporting economy. It is the sum of equity capital, reinvestment of earnings, and other capital. Direct investment is a category of cross-border investment associated with a resident in one economy having control or a significant degree of influence on the management of enterprise that is resident in other country. Ownership of 10 percent or more of the ordinary shares of voting stock in the criterion for determining the existence of a direct investment relationship.
Foreign direct investments inflows to Tanzania climbed 34.6 percent to an estimated $ 922 million (approximately 2.2 trillion) in 2021 from $ 685 million recorded in 2020.
According to World Investment Report 2022 released by United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) the increase was on the back of the development of a nickel project by UK- owned Kabanga Nickel for $ 318 million.
The Tanzania’s FDIs are therefore more than 10 percent of $ 8.1 billion FDIs recorded in 11 countries in East Africa last year and is the third largest recipient in the region behind Ethiopia with $ 4.2 billion and Uganda.
Meanwhile, global foreign direct investment flows in 2021 were $ 1.58 trillion, up 64 per cent from the level during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic of less than $ 1 trillion.
Meanwhile, FDI flows to Africa reached $ 83 billion-a record level-from $ 39 billion in 2020, accounting for 5.2 per cent of global FDI.
However, most recipients saw a moderate rise in FDI after the fall in 2020 caused by the pandemic.
The total for the continent was inflated by a single intrafirm financial transaction in South Africa in the second half of 2021.
