New Law Brings Optimism Over Investments

The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)

Samuel Kamndaya

28 April 2011

Tanzanians should anticipate numerous job opportunities soon as recent amendments of two laws will spur investments into the country, the Export Processing Zones Authority (EPZA) director general has said.

“We are optimistic that rationalisation of the two Acts will act as an impetus for us to bring in more and more investors….the only challenge ahead of us is to make sure that we create the necessary infrastructure to accommodate them (the investors),” Dr Adelhelm Meru said in Dar es Salaam yesterday.

Dr Meru met journalists to brief them on the second African Free Zones Association (AFZA) convention to be held in the country next month.Recently, the Parliament amended the EPZ Act of 2002 and the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) Act of 2006 to rationalise the roles and functions of the EPZA in relation to the two schemes (EPZ and SEZ).

The legal changes empower EPZA to oversee the operations of both the EPZ and SEZ. “An investor is now capable of investing under EPZA, but may not be necessarily required to export at least 70 per cent of his products…we hope this will help a lot,” he said.

Meanwhile, at least 250 delegates are expected to attend the second AFZA convention, organised jointly by AFZA and EPZA in collaboration with the World Bank.

The three-day event, which starts on the 11th of next month at Mlimani City Hall in the city, will be graced by Prime Minister, Mr Mizengo Pinda.

Key speakers will include Industries, Trade and Marketing minister, Dr Cyril Chami, AFZA chairman, Dr Noble Sodum Abe, World Bank country representative for Tanzania, Mr John Murray McIntire, Research on Poverty Alleviation executive director, Prof Samuel Wangwe and experts in Free Economic Zones operations from China, Malaysia and Dubai, among others.

“We will use the convention as a platform for exchanging experiences….we will be able to learn from others on how they managed to succeed through the initiatives….we will then be able to design strategies on how to make ours a success,” said Dr Meru.With a theme, ‘The role of Free Zones in achieving Millennium Development Goals in Africa’, the convention will aim at equipping free zones authorities in Africa with skills applied by their counterparts in other countries.

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