Egyptians visit Tanzania to explore opportunities, forge partnerships
EGYPTIAN trade mission consisting of 15 major companies has visited the country to explore opportunities in the Information and Communication Technology
(ICT) and hotels’ hospitality sector. The mission which arrived early this week met and conducted meetings with leaders, local companies and stakeholders in Tanzania mainland and Zanzibar. Speaking during the Business-to- Business (B2B) meeting held in Dar es Salaam on Wednesday, director general of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Commission Dr Nkundwe Mwasaga said the Egyptian mission included a number of companies operating in the fields of IT, furnishing, detergents and hotel supplies. He said that the government has
simplified investment regulations in order to attract investors from around the world. Dr Mwasaga further said the country has been making efforts to implement more e-governance initiatives and promote the use of digital technologies in public
services. “We are currently investing much of our efforts to ensure that
we provide all needed support to start-ups that grab the emerging technologies so as to bring transformation in various fields such as transportation, hospitality and other areas,” he said. According to him, the mission has got enough opportunity
to sit and discuss with various Tanzania technology companies and start-ups, this will help forge robust relations which will boost the ICT sector for sustainable
development,” he said. A recent report from the World Bank has listed Tanzania as one of the top countries globally for effective use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in delivering public services. The report, called the GovTech Maturity Index (GTMI), analyzed a total of 198 countries and placed Tanzania at 26th position globally, second in Africa, and topping the list in the East African region. The report indicates that the use of ICT in Tanzania has increased by
0.86 percent in the last year, which is a significant improvement. Hicham Arafa, chief operations officer of Bright skies of Egypt said the mission, organized by the
Egyptian Exporters Association (Expolink) has become a success under the patronage of the National Bank of Egypt and in collaboration with the Egyptian commercial representation agency and targeted exportation councils.
He acknowledged that Tanzania is endowed with many natural resources and investment opportunities and as a result of efforts by authorities to improve
trade and investment environment, the companies see it better to come
and forge trade relations with Tanzania companies as well as the government.
“We have been here in Tanzania since Sunday for a three-day visit, we have met and held talks with officials to discuss means of cementing trade relations and
boosting Egyptian exports, this is one of our productive trips,” he asserted.
He noted that the Egyptian ICT sector has been growing significantly offering wider
opportunities for investors in outsourcing, Engineering Research & Development (ER&D) and electronics. Dr Godwill Wanga, executive secretary of the Tanzania National Business Council (TNBC) said the firms will also help Tanzania establish digital systems so as to help the country be able to collect all the tourist revenues.
“We are trying to talk with our colleagues from Egypt, learn from them how they are managing their tourism and revenues, we are learning how they are capturing
revenues from this important sector using digital systems,” he said. According to him, currently, most of our tourists are coming in the country only with their bags after clearing all the needed payment using systems that are situated outside, we want to ensure that we now come up with a local system which will connect with various service providers including banks, tour operators and others so that
tourists will pay and book for hotels using our local system,” he explained.
