Chinese President Xi (right), Tanzanian Presdient Kikwete (left) – photo courtesy of Takaki Yajima, Pool/AP
Tanzania and China have inked more than $1.7 billion in investment deals as Beijing deepens ties with East Africa, Reuters reported on Saturday.
Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete said in a statement on Friday that the money from the deals will be used to develop infrastructure, power distribution, and business cooperation.
Among the deals signed are two major projects in and around Tanzania’s largest and richest city as well as a vital economic center, Dar es Sallam. These will be joint projects by the China Railway Jianchang Engineering Company and Tanzania’s state-run National Housing Corporation.
One of the projects will be to build a satellite city, located on the outskirts on Dar es Sallam, which well help to ease congestion in the busy commercial capital.
The other project will be the construction of a $500 million financial center which will be built in Dar es Sallam.
The deals highlight China’s growing economic presence in Tanzania, which is one of the fastest growing countries in Africa and among the top 25 fastest growing countries in the world, according to the World Bank.
Among recent deals that have been signed by Chinese firms include the construction of a rail network and a 330 mile natural gas pipeline across Tanzania.
Chinese investment in Tanzania has surged over 4-fold to $534 million in the third quarter of 2014, versus $124 million of investment seen in the same period last year, according to the Reuters report.
The Tanzanian President’s office said in a statement that China said they will speed up the construction of the Bagamoyo port and will begin offshore oil and gas exploration where major natural gas discoveries have been made off its southern coast.
Source: Reuters
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