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Tanzania and Uganda keen to link with Malaysia
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TANZANIA is keen to tap Malaysian expertise to help develop its palm oil industry, especially for the production of bio-fuels.
Patricia Mhondo, the investment promotion manager of the Tanzania Investment Centre, said more than 160,000 hectares suitable for oil palm and jatropha production have already been identified. Jatropha is a plant that grows in wastelands from which the jatropha vegetable oil is produced and which could be used as bio-fuel. |
"We chose Malaysia because it is the second largest crude palm oil producer in the world," she said. Only six percent of the cultivated land in Tanzania was under palm oil plants, which was why Dar es Salaam was looking for Malaysian expertise to increase palm oil cultivation.
Tanzania has reportedly created a National Bio-fuels Task Force Task to promote the sector, according to a statement handed to the media recently.
Ms. Mhondo said that investment opportunities were also abound in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, tourism, infrastructure such as roads, seaports and airports, health, power, education and information and communications technology. ACCCIM secretary-general, Tan Sri Soong Siew Hoong, said that the chamber would help organise a trade and investment mission to Tanzania for two days from 29 November and Uganda from 3 to 4 December. The move would help raise trade and investment between Malaysia and the East African states as well as help to transfer the niche technologies needed in Tanzania and Uganda.
Issa Mukasa, the director of the Investment Promotion Division from the Uganda Investment Authority, said Malaysian businesses should explore opportunities in Uganda as it is a gateway to the wider regional market. Besides its population of 31 million, Uganda is also a member of the East African Community which also comprises Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, and they have a combined population of 115 million people.
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