Planned Bagamoyo Port in Tanzania |
- The Chinese investor has now been offered a 33-year lease instead of the 99-year one asked for
By
Emmanuel Onyango, DAR ES SALAAM Tanzania
The
government of Tanzania has issued an ultimatum to the Chinese investor in the
$10 billion Bagamoyo port project to either accept and work with its terms and
conditions of the contract or leave.
Tanzania Ports Authority chief
executive Deusdedit Kakoko said the government rejected and revised five
stringent demands made by the investor, Beijing based; China Merchants Holdings
International because they were not beneficial to the country.
The Chinese investor has now
been offered a 33-year lease instead of the 99-year one asked for. Two, the
investor has been informed that there will be no tax holiday and they will be
subjected to all taxes designed by the Tanzania Revenue Authority.
Three, that there would be no
special status and they would be required to pay the market rate for water and
electricity like any other investor.
Four, they could not start and
run any other business they deemed necessary within the port without
government’s approval and were open to scrutiny and regulation by relevant
agencies in line with law like any other investor.
Five, they were informed that
the government of Tanzania was free to develop other ports to be in direct
competition with Bagamoyo.
Once the Chinese firm agrees
in principal with the government’s new conditions, the project can move to the
next stage which is execution in collaboration with the Oman’s State General
Reserve Fund (SGRF).
The Bagamoyo port development
project was initiated late into the tenure of retired president Jakaya Kikwete.
But President John Magufuli
ordered an immediate suspension of the project in January 2016, saying the
conditions set by the investor were tantamount to selling Tanzania to China.
The port, to be built in
Bagamoyo, 75 kilometres north of Dar es Salaam, would dwarf neighbouring
Kenya’s port at Mombasa, east Africa’s trade gateway some 300 kilometres to the
north, and include an industrial zone and rail and road links to a region
hoping to exploit new oil and gas finds.
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