President John Magufuli while meeting with the visiting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at State House yesterday invited Turkey government to provide a concessional loan for the construction of at least 400 kilometre-stretch of the envisaged standard gauge central railway according to a report by the Daily News.
Magufuli revealed that a Turkish company was among the short-listed contractors that had bid for implementation of the multitrillion shilling project that covers over 1,200 kilometres from Dar es Salaam City on Tanzania’s Indian Ocean coast to Mwanza, a mid-sized port city on the southern shores of Lake Victoria in northwestern Tanzania.
“I have appealed to government of Turkey through their EXIM Bank to provide funds for construction of a section of the standard gauge railway to which President Erdoğan has agreed…he has directed his finance minister to work on it,” Magufuli announced
President Erdoğan is said to have described the 400-kilometer stretch asked for by the Tanzanian government as too small.
Turkish Airlines will soon begin direct flights between Tanzania and Turkey through in a bid to add the number of tourists visiting Dar es Salaam from Ankara. Trade volume between Tanzania and Turkey stood at US 66 million dollars in 2011 and the amount more than doubled to US 190 million dollars as of last year.
“There are currently 30 Turkish projects registered in Tanzania with a combined value of 505.08 million US dollars… the investments have created 2,950 jobs for Tanzanians,” Dr Magufuli noted
“The current rate of trade volume of 190 million dollars does not reflect the real potential, I believe the amount could be as much as 500 million dollars per annum. “We want to strengthen co-operation between our countries through enhancement of investments and promotion of entrepreneurship,” said President Erdoğan, adding that there is a huge potential for cooperation between the two countries in sectors like industry, trade and tourism, among others
