FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2018
Tanzania is East Africa's leading FDIs destination
Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC) executive director Geoffrey Mwambe
In Summary
- Globally foreign direct investment (FDI) flows fell by 23 per cent in 2017 to $1.43 trillion from $1.87 trillion in 2016, according to the World Investment Report 2018.
- Despite the declining FDI flows, Tanzania managed to attract over $1.18 billion investments in 2017, slightly below the 2016 figure.
By John Namkwahe @johnteck3
jnamkwahe@tz.nationmedia.com
Dar es Salaam. Tanzania is the leading Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) destination among member states of the East African Community (EAC), accounting for about 40 per cent of all the investments in the bloc that were received in 2017, a new report shows.
Both East Africa and the Horn of Africa, which have emerged as the fastest growing FDI destination on the continent, registered a total of $7.6 billion in foreign investments last year, the World Investment Report (WIR) 2018 shows.
The report is published by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad).
Of the money, Ethiopia alone – which is now the largest recipient of FDIs in Africa after Egypt – took up $3.6 billion.
About $3 billion went to the EAC trading bloc with the remaining amount going to other East African countries that are not members of the bloc, notes the report which was launched during a recent World Investment Forum (WIF) 2018 in Geneva, Switzerland.
Of the $3 billion going into EAC, Tanzania registered FDIs projects worth $1.2 billion. The country was followed by Uganda which bagged FDIs worth $700 million as Kenya came third with FDIs valued at $672 million.
Rwanda was in the fourth slot with investments worth $366 million followed by South Sudan at $80 million as Burundi tailed the list with only $0.3 million ($300,000).
According to the WIR report, Tanzania’s strong FDIs is backed by strong gold prices and a diversified productive structure, including expansion by Facebook, Uber and India’s Bharti Airtel.
Speaking in Dar es Salaam yesterday, Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC) executive director Geoffrey Mwambe said globally FDIs flows fell by 23 per cent in 2017 to $1.43 trillion from $1.87 trillion in 2016.
This, he said, sends intense competition among countries.
“The countries worldwide are striving to create conducive environment to attract domestic and foreign direct investment (FDIs). The competition is intense among countries worldwide,” he said.
He added, “It is high time for the State and private sector institutions to create conducive environment to attract investors so as to achieve and industrial economy.”
“The aim is to achieve middle income economy that will result in poverty reduction among citizens,” he further said.
Tanzania is East Africa's leading FDIs destination