Construction of Bagamoyo port to commence this month - govt
3rd January 2014
Scheduled for completion in 2017, the Bagamoyo port will have the capacity to handle twenty times more cargo that of Dar es Salaam Port, which is currently the country's largest port.
This was revealed recently in Dar es Salaam by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Dr Servacius Likwelile during the signing of two framework agreements and two exchanges of letters between the government of Tanzania and the People’s Republic of China which granted 89bn/- to finance implementation of various projects in the country.
“The construction of Bagamoyo port will commence on January 6, this year after the signing of the construction agreement between Tanzania and China on that same day,” noted Dr Likwelile.
The construction of Bagamoyo port comes almost in time as Tanzania is losing a lot of trade and commerce opportunities because of inefficiency of the Dar es Salaam port.
According to Tanzania's Ambassador to China Philip Marmo, the over USD10 bn/- Bagomoyo port project will add to the economy as the port will have the capacity to handle 20 million containers a year compared to the Dar es Salaam port which handles only 800,000 containers a year.
“The Bagamoyo port construction project will entail the building of a 34 kilometre road joining Bagamoyo and Mlandizi and a 65 kilometres of railway connecting Bagamoyo with the Tanzania-Zambia Railway (TAZARA) and Central Railway. The port will be of high standard. We are building a fourth generation port,” said Marmo.
According to Marmo, the Chinese stand to gain from Tanzania's future Bagamoyo port because it will facilitate China-bound shipments of minerals from Zambia, Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) via the Indian Ocean.
The construction of the Bagamoyo port is among the 16 recently signed development projects agreement between Tanzania and China, orchestrated by President Jakaya Kikwete and Chinese President Xi Jinping during Xi's state visit to Dar es Salaam in March last year.
Speaking of the recently 89bn/- Chinese financial aid for implementation of various projects in the country, Likwelile said it involved the first framework agreement on economic and technical cooperation between Tanzania and China under which a gratuitous aid amounting to 52bn/- will be provided to support implementation of projects that will be agreed upon by the two governments at a later stage.
“Under the second framework agreement, the government of China will make available to the Tanzanian government an interest free loan amounting to 26bn/ to support implementation of projects also to be agreed upon by the two governments,” he added.
He further mentioned the Chinese donation of furniture and equipment worth 1.3bn/- to the Mwalimu Nyerere International Convention Centre as well as equipment worth 400m/- donated to the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) office.
During the signing function, the Chinese government also donated to the ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation 91 vehicles worth 9bn/- including 45 limousines and 46 buses.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
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