MCI Holds Workshop on Attracting Investment to Tabora

MCI held a consultative workshop in Tabora, Tanzania, on October 11-12, to review and discuss what should be included in MCI”s forthcoming City Investment Guide to Tabora, developed as part of the Regional Partnership to Promote Trade and Investment in Sub-Saharan Africa, an MCI initiative funded by the Government of Finland. It was attended by some 40 participants drawn from the private sector and the Tabora district and municipal administrations. The Guide and the other MCI investment projects were warmly welcomed and commended by all participants.

The first day consisted of two informal sessions, one with business representatives and the other with Government representatives, that sought feedback on investment conditions in Tabora (and more broadly Tanzania) and on the Guide. The sessions were chaired by Vishwas P. Govitrikar, MCI’s international consultant, who had prepared the Guide. He was assisted by Joy Morabu, MCI’s regional coordinator for Eastern and Southern Africa, and Deo Damian Msilu, MCI’s investment promotion expert in Tabora, who organized the workshop.

The second day consisted of a plenary session that brought together all participants from the first day’s sessions as well as some other senior officials. The purpose of this session was to promote dialogue and strengthen understanding between business and Government. The session opened with a welcome by the Deputy Mayor of Tabora, Dotto Ngereza. (The Mayor, Gulam Hussein Remtullah Dewji, joined the session later.) It was followed by opening remarks by the District Commissioner, Suleiman Omar Kumchaya. Then came a half-session focused on investor perspectives on investing in Tabora, followed by a half-session focused on Government perspectives on investing in Tabora. Both half-sessions were followed by fairly extensive discussions of the speakers’ main points. The first discussion was moderated by the District Commissioner and the second by the Municipal Director, Sipora J. Liana.

Two main conclusions emerged from the discussions. First, participants agreed that Tabora offered opportunities in several of the areas identified in the Guide, including honey processing, sunflower-oil processing and dairy-product processing. To realize these opportunities, the group suggested, foreign investors could supply technology upgrading and management know-how, perhaps in partnership with local investors. Second, the biggest hurdle facing Tabora was transport infrastructure, needed to connect Tabora to potential markets at home and abroad. Participants were glad to note, however, that concrete steps were being taken to address the need for transport infrastructure: the airport is scheduled to open for business by March 2013; the paved-road links to Dar es Salaam and Mwanza will be completed by 2015; and the narrow-gauge railway tracks will be replaced by standard-gauge (1,435 mm) ones by 2015. This transport challenge, as well as the investment opportunities, will be taken up by the government and MCI at an investment day and donor roundtable planned for early 2013.