Millennium City Tabora Holds Successful Investment Promotion Forum in Tanzania’s Capital

On Friday, July 19th, under the auspices of the Regional Partnership to Promote Trade and Investment in Sub-Saharan Africa (funded by the Government of Finland and implemented by the Millennium Cities Initiative), the Region and Municipality of Tabora held an investment forum in Dar es Salaam to promote awareness of investment opportunities in and around Tabora, a thriving municipality and emerging economic hub in western Tanzania. With over 140 attendees, including over 50 private businesses, and the active support of the national, regional and municipal governments, the event was considered an enormous success.

The Vice President of the United Republic of Tanzania, the Honorable Dr. Mohamed Gharib Bilal, officially launched the event, and the Regional Commissioner for Tabora, the Honorable Fatma Mwassa, provided opening remarks. Business owners described their experiences in the city, and investment promotion experts detailed investment opportunities. Representatives from the Government of Finland, the global accounting firm KPMG and MCI also spoke.

Honorable Regional Coordinator Abbakar Mwassa talked about Tabora’s future and the role investment will play: “We are realistic in Tabora. We know that Rome was not built in one day and that it will take time to fully achieve our goal of attracting the number of new investors that will find value in what Tabora has to offer: excellent opportunities to establish new businesses and the chance to do so in an area of the country that offers a high quality of life. Thus, today is the start, not the end, of a process that will see our region take a strong proactive role in helping companies establish a presence and prosper in our area.”

The Regional Government and Municipal Administration, as well as the Tanzanian Investment Centre (TIC), organized the forum, in cooperation with MCI’s Regional Partnership.

“MCI hopes that the forum, along with Tabora’s other investment promotion initiatives—the recent investment guide and the forthcoming website—will make Tabora’s many advantages better known to investors,” noted MCI Senior Advisor, Dr. Karin Millett. “Tabora offers a promising location, an inexpensive workforce, abundant natural resources and a range of opportunities for productive investment. Recent refurbishment of the Tabora airport, as well as upgrading of roads in the region, should significantly reduce transport costs and time to market. Coupled with the national Government’s plans to upgrade the port of Dar es Salaam and develop the port at Bagomoyo, which has the potential to become a major hub for East Africa, these infrastructure improvements should open the way for significant opportunities for international trade.”

The forum in Dar es Salaam was the first of three such fora to be held this year by those Millennium Cities participating in the Regional Partnership: Mekelle, Ethiopia, will host its own investment day on October 3rd in Addis Ababa, and the investment promotion symposium focused on Kumasi, Ghana, will take place on October 7^th, in Accra.

For more information about investment opportunities in and around Tabora, please contact Tabora Investment Promotion Specialist Deo Damian Msilu. To learn about the Kumasi event in Accra, and/or investment opportunities in Kumasi, please contact Kumasi Investment Promotion Specialist Bennet Niboi; for the Mekelle forum to take place in Addis, and/or to learn more about prospects for investment in Mekelle, please contact Mekelle Investment Promotion Specialist Moges Mesfin. For more on the Millennium Cities Initiative, please visit mci.ei.columbia.edu; for answers to other specific questions regarding MCI’s work on private sector development, please email MCI.