By Mwondoshah Mfanga
Trade and Industry Minister,Dr Abdallah Kigoda
Most of the profit accrued from Tanzanian firms – both local and foreign –
last year was ploughed back into the country’s production system, Tanzanian
government officials have told a meeting of the Commonwealth Business Forum
(CBF) here.
However, Trade and Industry Minister Dr Abdallah Kigoda and Isles Industry and Trade Minister Mwinyikai didn’t give any clear figures on the profits at the CBF session, but only reiterated that much of the profit was redirected to internal production.
These figures were released during visits by reputable leaders including Chinese President Xinping and US president Barack Obama – during which Tanzania’s position as an investment destination was heightened.
However, Trade and Industry Minister Dr Abdallah Kigoda and Isles Industry and Trade Minister Mwinyikai didn’t give any clear figures on the profits at the CBF session, but only reiterated that much of the profit was redirected to internal production.
These figures were released during visits by reputable leaders including Chinese President Xinping and US president Barack Obama – during which Tanzania’s position as an investment destination was heightened.
Further, it was revealed that it has become easier for foreign businesses to understand Tanzania as a significant investment destination capable of competing with many of her neighbours.
Dr Kigoda said currently the government has been fasttracking policy development in implementing projects that are linked with the ‘Big Results Now’ in the areas of agriculture, power generation and education.
The other areas include developing a sound and stable financial infrastructure for the country, information and communication technology and the transformation of Tanzania Investment Centre as a one stop centre capable of regulating processing all information on visa permits.
Sri Lankan and Tanzanian governments also have been looking for possibilities of having experts from the former country assist the latter in developing operational logistics at the Dar es Salaam port.
Currently, Sri Lanka is building a new port called Colombo port city which some officials claim will challenge other neighbouring ports including Singapore as the largest Indian Ocean seaport linking the West and the East.
For her part, TIC executive director Juliet Kairuki said Tanzania is very likely to get more investments after it was rated zero in terms of political risks.
“When your country is rated zero it means that you are least prone to conflicts and therefore the possibility of attracting investment sis higher,” she said during an interview with this paper.
Giving an example, she said the centre has received investment requests for
USD several 28m geothermal investment projects in Tanzania by a US
firm.
She would not divulge the name of the investor nor the place where the projects would be carried out.
Meanwhile, the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2013 began here yesterday with calls by leaders and other government officials calling for the safeguard of the values enshrined in the association.
At least 3,500 delegates were in attendance at the meeting whose theme was “Growth with Equity: Inclusive Development”.
Riding on India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Britain's Prince Charles appealed to the Commonwealth to resolve economic, social and environmental challenges facing the Commonwealth ‘family’.
"Sri Lanka was one of the founding countries of the modern Commonwealth … historians of this family of nations will recall that, in the circumstances of that time, the Commonwealth showed an exceptional spirit of accommodation over how the organisation should be constituted," the Prince of Wales said.
"This led one prominent head of government, in other words Prime Minister Nehru (with whom, incidentally, I always felt proud to share a birthday), to declare that the Commonwealth seemed capable of bringing 'a touch of healing' to the management of contemporary world problems.
"More than 60 years later, we should not need to be reminded of the many troubles that beset our world, some of them previously little understood, nor should we underestimate the importance and responsibility of the Commonwealth's role in addressing them," he added.
Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Prince Charles declared open the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) at a short but glittering ceremony at the Nelum Pokuna Theatre here.
The prince, who is standing in for his mother, Queen Elizabeth II as the head of the Commonwealth, called on the gathering of the 41 nations (in attendance) to increase cooperation to address a range of challenges, including fighting poverty, climate change and promote equitable development and technological connectivity.
"At this CHGOM, the Commonwealth is being charged to confront the many issues affecting the security and well-being of its nations and peoples, working to the agenda that has been outlined," the prince said.
For his part, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott defended Sri Lanka's human rights record, saying the Rajapaksa government was committed to upholding the democratic charter of the Commonwealth but that "sometimes in difficult circumstances difficult things happen".
Abborts who met British Prime Minister David Cameron before attending the official opening of the three-day Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting where Australia formally handed the chair of the 53-member body to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa said the crucial point for the association’s members is to guard its values as enshrined in the charter.
While Cameron has left the door open to supporting an international investigation into alleged war crimes committed by both sides during Sri lanka's 26-year civil war, and Canada and India have boycotted the summit, Abbott said his fundamental task while in Sri Lanka is to encourage the host towards reconciliation.
"There are examples in the Commonwealth, in South Africa and Ireland, where intractable problems have finally responded to the better angels of our nature," he said in a speech that marked the formal handover of the chair yesterday.
That Sri Lanka was willing to host this year's CHOGM summit demonstrated its commitment to principles of the Commonwealth charter -- democracy, human rights and rule of law -- even though it was "not always easy to live up to those ideals," he said.
Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma admitted this week that the organisation was still working with Sri Lanka on "difficult, sensitive areas like torture by state security forces", reconciliation and the rule of law.
Abbott said that while his government "deplores the use of torture we accept that sometimes in difficult circumstances difficult things happen."
"Sri Lanka since the end of the war is much more free and prosperous, and has a better future and that's important for everyone," he added.
As the previous Commonwealth chair, Australia championed the Commonwealth charter which was adopted last year by all 53 member nations.
Critics of the Sri Lankan government say the decision to allow the Rajapaksa government to host the summit makes a mockery of that charter.
UN Human Rights Council special envoy Navi Pillay delivered a damning assessment of the Sri Lankan government following a recent fact-finding visit to the country in which she accused it of creeping authoritarianism, intimidation of media and human rights activists, and of compromising the independence of the judiciary.
But Mr Rajapaksa told the forum, officially opened for the first time by Prince Charles, that the organisation risked losing its relevance if it was allowed to turn into "a punitive or judgmental body."
"The strength of the body lies in helping one another in the spirit of partnership," he said.
Meanwhile, British Prime Minister David Cameron made an historic visit to Sri Lanka's former warzone yesterday, stealing the spotlight from the Commonwealth summit after the host, President Mahinda Rajapakse warned against passing judgment on his country's past.
Only hours after the summit opened in Colombo, Cameron flew into the northern Jaffna region where some 100,000 people lost their lives in fighting between Tamil rebels and troops from the majority Sinhalese government.
Several women who lost relatives during the war tried to hurl themselves in front of the Cameron motorcade as he became the first foreign leader to visit Jaffna since the former British colony gained independence in 1948.
Clutching photos of their missing loved ones, they screamed "We Want Justice" before the premier sped away.
He later toured the offices of a Tamil newspaper whose printing presses have been torched several times, including in April this year, and which has lost five staff in attacks since Rajapakse came to power in 2005.
She would not divulge the name of the investor nor the place where the projects would be carried out.
Meanwhile, the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2013 began here yesterday with calls by leaders and other government officials calling for the safeguard of the values enshrined in the association.
At least 3,500 delegates were in attendance at the meeting whose theme was “Growth with Equity: Inclusive Development”.
Riding on India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Britain's Prince Charles appealed to the Commonwealth to resolve economic, social and environmental challenges facing the Commonwealth ‘family’.
"Sri Lanka was one of the founding countries of the modern Commonwealth … historians of this family of nations will recall that, in the circumstances of that time, the Commonwealth showed an exceptional spirit of accommodation over how the organisation should be constituted," the Prince of Wales said.
"This led one prominent head of government, in other words Prime Minister Nehru (with whom, incidentally, I always felt proud to share a birthday), to declare that the Commonwealth seemed capable of bringing 'a touch of healing' to the management of contemporary world problems.
"More than 60 years later, we should not need to be reminded of the many troubles that beset our world, some of them previously little understood, nor should we underestimate the importance and responsibility of the Commonwealth's role in addressing them," he added.
Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Prince Charles declared open the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) at a short but glittering ceremony at the Nelum Pokuna Theatre here.
The prince, who is standing in for his mother, Queen Elizabeth II as the head of the Commonwealth, called on the gathering of the 41 nations (in attendance) to increase cooperation to address a range of challenges, including fighting poverty, climate change and promote equitable development and technological connectivity.
"At this CHGOM, the Commonwealth is being charged to confront the many issues affecting the security and well-being of its nations and peoples, working to the agenda that has been outlined," the prince said.
For his part, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott defended Sri Lanka's human rights record, saying the Rajapaksa government was committed to upholding the democratic charter of the Commonwealth but that "sometimes in difficult circumstances difficult things happen".
Abborts who met British Prime Minister David Cameron before attending the official opening of the three-day Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting where Australia formally handed the chair of the 53-member body to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa said the crucial point for the association’s members is to guard its values as enshrined in the charter.
While Cameron has left the door open to supporting an international investigation into alleged war crimes committed by both sides during Sri lanka's 26-year civil war, and Canada and India have boycotted the summit, Abbott said his fundamental task while in Sri Lanka is to encourage the host towards reconciliation.
"There are examples in the Commonwealth, in South Africa and Ireland, where intractable problems have finally responded to the better angels of our nature," he said in a speech that marked the formal handover of the chair yesterday.
That Sri Lanka was willing to host this year's CHOGM summit demonstrated its commitment to principles of the Commonwealth charter -- democracy, human rights and rule of law -- even though it was "not always easy to live up to those ideals," he said.
Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma admitted this week that the organisation was still working with Sri Lanka on "difficult, sensitive areas like torture by state security forces", reconciliation and the rule of law.
Abbott said that while his government "deplores the use of torture we accept that sometimes in difficult circumstances difficult things happen."
"Sri Lanka since the end of the war is much more free and prosperous, and has a better future and that's important for everyone," he added.
As the previous Commonwealth chair, Australia championed the Commonwealth charter which was adopted last year by all 53 member nations.
Critics of the Sri Lankan government say the decision to allow the Rajapaksa government to host the summit makes a mockery of that charter.
UN Human Rights Council special envoy Navi Pillay delivered a damning assessment of the Sri Lankan government following a recent fact-finding visit to the country in which she accused it of creeping authoritarianism, intimidation of media and human rights activists, and of compromising the independence of the judiciary.
But Mr Rajapaksa told the forum, officially opened for the first time by Prince Charles, that the organisation risked losing its relevance if it was allowed to turn into "a punitive or judgmental body."
"The strength of the body lies in helping one another in the spirit of partnership," he said.
Meanwhile, British Prime Minister David Cameron made an historic visit to Sri Lanka's former warzone yesterday, stealing the spotlight from the Commonwealth summit after the host, President Mahinda Rajapakse warned against passing judgment on his country's past.
Only hours after the summit opened in Colombo, Cameron flew into the northern Jaffna region where some 100,000 people lost their lives in fighting between Tamil rebels and troops from the majority Sinhalese government.
Several women who lost relatives during the war tried to hurl themselves in front of the Cameron motorcade as he became the first foreign leader to visit Jaffna since the former British colony gained independence in 1948.
Clutching photos of their missing loved ones, they screamed "We Want Justice" before the premier sped away.
He later toured the offices of a Tamil newspaper whose printing presses have been torched several times, including in April this year, and which has lost five staff in attacks since Rajapakse came to power in 2005.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
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