Q & A with CEO of Tanzania Investment Centre
The East African Business Week correspondent Kenan Kalagho and Anna Sombida spoke with the Acting Executive Director of Tanzania Investment Centre, Raymond Mbilinyi, to know about the state of investments in Tanzania. Below are excerpts.
(Mr Raymond Mbilinyi, the Acting Director of Tanzania Investment Center Photo By Kenan Kalagho)
What is the current status of investments in Tanzania?
We expect the investment to increase by 40% this year recording 750 investment projects as compared to last year where 309 investment projects were recorded and this will be the second climax we will have recorded in a period of 10 years.
How does Tanzania Fair in the EAC region in terms of investment?
Early this year, the World Investment Report showed Tanzania as ranking second after Uganda with FDI worth $700 million whereas Uganda ranked first in the region with $846 million of FDI.
There has been a trend in Tanzania whereby foreign investors claim to invest huge sums of money in different projects, but how do you vet the claimed investment value if they really invested that much in projects. Does the TIC have a desk to verify these claims?
Yes, we have a department that verifies these claims of investment.
We also have the Department of Facilitation and the Department of Research which conduct research to verify the investors' claims and the problems the investors face. There is also the
On the other hand TIC also makes physical on-site surveys of the investment projects to understand to vet the reports.
However, it is not always that all investors who come to invest in Tanzania succeed 100% with their investments. In the last two years, for example, we have had experiences of economic crisis and these have been some of the problems that befalls investors to take off with their projects. The other issue is land problems and difficulties in obtaining loans from the banks.
We have witnessed the changing of names by several companies every five years of businesses, the recent being Movenpick and Kempenski Hotels and Telecommunication companies, what does that mean to Tanzania revenue and tax holidays?
There is no problem in changing names. This is just a process that happens all over the world. It is like purchasing of companies, branding and change of management. What is important to understand is that it is only the projects, not change of name benefits from the tax exemptions initially, such as construction materials, but if the company gets sold or changes name or management after the take off, it continues to pay tax as per its registration requirement.
Do you think this trend brings positive results to the economy of Tanzania especially considering that every new investor is given tax exemptions from for a period of five years?
A: We don't have tax exemption for five years, what we do have is exemption on capital duty like in construction materials for investment projects, equipments or importation of machines where tax is removed from such materials being used in the construction.
What is the current status of investments in Tanzania?
We expect the investment to increase by 40% this year recording 750 investment projects as compared to last year where 309 investment projects were recorded and this will be the second climax we will have recorded in a period of 10 years.
How does Tanzania Fair in the EAC region in terms of investment?
Early this year, the World Investment Report showed Tanzania as ranking second after Uganda with FDI worth $700 million whereas Uganda ranked first in the region with $846 million of FDI.
There has been a trend in Tanzania whereby foreign investors claim to invest huge sums of money in different projects, but how do you vet the claimed investment value if they really invested that much in projects. Does the TIC have a desk to verify these claims?
Yes, we have a department that verifies these claims of investment.
We also have the Department of Facilitation and the Department of Research which conduct research to verify the investors' claims and the problems the investors face. There is also the
On the other hand TIC also makes physical on-site surveys of the investment projects to understand to vet the reports.
However, it is not always that all investors who come to invest in Tanzania succeed 100% with their investments. In the last two years, for example, we have had experiences of economic crisis and these have been some of the problems that befalls investors to take off with their projects. The other issue is land problems and difficulties in obtaining loans from the banks.
We have witnessed the changing of names by several companies every five years of businesses, the recent being Movenpick and Kempenski Hotels and Telecommunication companies, what does that mean to Tanzania revenue and tax holidays?
There is no problem in changing names. This is just a process that happens all over the world. It is like purchasing of companies, branding and change of management. What is important to understand is that it is only the projects, not change of name benefits from the tax exemptions initially, such as construction materials, but if the company gets sold or changes name or management after the take off, it continues to pay tax as per its registration requirement.
Do you think this trend brings positive results to the economy of Tanzania especially considering that every new investor is given tax exemptions from for a period of five years?
A: We don't have tax exemption for five years, what we do have is exemption on capital duty like in construction materials for investment projects, equipments or importation of machines where tax is removed from such materials being used in the construction.
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