20/10/ 2011
Tanzania Export Processing Zones Authority (EPZA) has invited potential investors to grab business opportunities in Kigoma Special Economic Zone (KISEZ), which is already fully developed and yearning for investments.EPZA Director General Adelhelm Meru told the one-day Lake Tanganyika Investors’ Forum in Rukwa on Monday that the region stands a big chance of becoming the country's industrial hub, thanks to efforts underway to develop the region into the special economic zone.
“There is huge potential for agro-processing in Kigoma region,” Dr Meru said, inviting investors to take up business opportunities in fish, meat, dairy and agro-processing as well as mining in Kigoma and the entire lake Tanganyika zone.
President Jakaya Kikwete, speaking at the forum, directed EPZA to prioritise Kigoma SEZ, which is strategically located for cross border trade with Burundi, DRC Congo and Zambia.
Dr Meru touted the EPZ programme as the engine of economic growth that developing countries like Tanzania have to embrace, citing China, India, Malaysia and other Asian Tigers which used the programmes to achieve rapid economic growth.
He said even the neighbouring Kenya’s exports of over 200 million US dollars worth of products to the US were mainly from EPZs and Special Economic Zones. Tanzania manages to export hardly 3bn/- worth of goods to the US under the duty and quota free African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
"The products you see around from China are not necessarily counterfeits but genuine products from Special Economic Zones," Dr Meru charged in his paper: “Investment opportunities in EPZs and SEZs.”
He said the country has good and attractive investment policies but decried poor infrastructure, bureaucracy and corruption as the major impediments that scare away investors, particularly in EPZs and SEZs.
China which is currently the world's second largest economy after the US has managed to attract massive foreign investments in its special zones because of good infrastructure and skilled manpower.
Quoting available statistics, Dr Meru said that Chinese special economic zones employ 30 million people, contribute 40 per cent of the country’s GDP and account for 60 per cent of the country's exports.
EPZ and SEZ are designated industrial areas with little government regulation in terms of employment, taxation and have the best infrastructure. Unlike EPZs which are strictly production facilities for exports only, SEZs also sell their products in the domestic market.
