China waivers taxes on Dar es Salaam goods

Presidents Xi and Kikwete in Dar 

As part of the benefits of the historic visit by new Chinese President Xi Jinping to the country recently, China has decided to waiver taxes on 95 per cent of all exports from Tanzania.

The Cultural Counsellor in the Chinese Embassy, Mr Liu Dong, made the revelation in Dar es Salaam when addressing reporters on the success of the Chinese leader's visit that also saw him travel to South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Without getting into details, Mr Dong also said that trade between Tanzania and China has been increasing despite global economic and financial trends, noting that Tanzania is to gain more from China.

"Tanzania ranks second in Africa in terms of countries that China has invested heavily and receives many loans with minimal interest compared to other countries," he said.

Permanent Secretary in Ministry of Industry and Trade, Ms Joyce Mapunjo confirmed the arrangement but declined to giver further details, saying that the government will issue its statement at a later date.

"It is true, they (Chinese government) have given us an exceptional waiver on 95 per cent of all exports to that country, but I am not in the office to provide more details concerning the matter," she said.

Finance and Economic Affairs Minister, Dr William Mgimwa said the government will provide a report concerning the information soon.

"We will provide a report after discussions are finalized on the arrangement," he said. According to the Bank of Tanzania's Statistics, Tanzania's exports to China increased from 101bn/- in 2005 to 908b/- in 2010.

This is a 9-fold increase. Imports from China rose from a higher base of 245bn/-, 2005 to 1,213bn/- in 2010. The report says that there has been a win-win trade flow witnessed by a faster growth of Tanzania's exports to China. 

Mr Dong said the government of China has pledged to continue with the collaboration especially on investments from Chinese companies and by convincing Chinese financial organizations to gather more resources to Tanzania.

He also said the two countries will expand social information and improve the collaboration on various sectors such education, culture, technologies, health and tourism among other lines of work. 

Commenting on Africa-China trade, Mr Dong said it has grown to 198.5 US dollars in 2012. "Over 2.9 billions US dollars was invested in African countries last year (2012)," he noted.

Source: The Daily News, www.dailynews.co.tz, reported by Anne Robi in Dar es Salaam

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