Finland, long time ally to Tanzania assures cooperation, support

TANZANIA: TANZANIA is Finland’s one of the longest-running and largest development cooperation partners.

Way back Finland recognised Tanganyika on 9 December 1961 and that culminated in a diplomatic relations being established on 14 June 1965. Through its support, the Nordic country has made an enormous difference to the living conditions of Tanzanians.

In the early 1960s, the first development cooperation programmes were started jointly with other Nordic countries and soon after the bilateral cooperation, a journey of friendship between Finland and Tanzania was begun. In fact, Tanzania became Finland’s first partner country in development cooperation.

In this exclusive interview with DAILY NEWS Senior Writer, FLORENCE MUGARULA, the Finnish Ambassador to Tanzania, Ms Theresa Zitting explains the current relations and areas of cooperations between the two countries…

Excerpts Qn: What is the current relationship between Tanzania and Finland?

Answer: The current relation between Tanzania and Finland is excellent. We have a long relation of more than 60 years. We recognised Tanganyika already in 1961 just after her independence and later recognised Tanzania after the union. We then established our development cooperation; in fact Tanzania became Finland’s first partner-country in development cooperation. This is the longest relation in Africa.

Government officials and Ministers from both sides have been visiting the country from time to time along with their delegations. Our earlier Ambassador here, Martti Ahtisaari later became the President of Finland.

He was a good friend of former President of Tanzania, the late Benjamin Mkapa, and he even wrote about their friendship in his book ‘My Life, My Purpose’.

All these show the good relationship between the two countries and the people at large.

Qn: Tanzania is one of recipients of donors’ support, in which areas has Finland been supporting Tanzania?

Answer: Finland has been working closely with Tanzania. We started with Kibaha Education Centre (KEC) in 1960s. The KEC was established in 1963, with the support of the then Tanganyika government and the four Nordic countries; Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.

In 1970, the four Nordic Countries handed over the project to the government of Tanzania. The focus of the KEC was to fight the big three enemies of development namely ignorance, diseases and poverty.

There have been a number of development projects in many parts of the country. Finland has been cooperating with Tanzania in many sectors such as forestry, gender equality, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), education, health, geology and meteorology.

I would especially like to mention the Uongozi Institute, which was created jointly between the government of Finland and the Government of Tanzania 24 years ago. Its work is impressive and I have had the pleasure of meeting many Tanzanians who have been trained by the Institute.

Qn: Tanzania and Finland have been cooperating in various areas, what is the status of economic and trade relations between the two countries?

Answer: Our trade and economic relations are good and our aim is to increase these relations much further. Finnish Ministers and business delegations have been visiting the country from time to time for trade relations purposes and I hope we will see more trade related cooperation in the near future.

There are vast opportunities in many key sectors such as agribusiness and forestry, logistics, ICT and mining. In Information, Communication and Technology (ICT), there is a major company Nokia which builds infrastructure and networks, you may know it from the mobile phones it used to make. We see a lot of potential in this sector.

In logistics, there are also excellent Finnish companies providing solutions for ports and airports, including digitalisation. In mining as well as agribusiness and forestry we have a long partnership, and there are many Finnish companies offering expertise and equipment in these sectors as well.

During the past twenty years, Finland has focused its investments in Tanzania in companies in the field of sustainable forestry

Qn: How does Finland support education, health programmes to Tanzania students?

Answer: Finland has been cooperating and supporting Tanzania in education sector through student exchange programmes, teacher education and innovative pedagogy.

A number of universities such as the University of Dar es Salaam, University of Dodoma, Ardhi University, Tumaini University, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Moshi Cooperative University and the State University of Zanzibar belong to the beneficiaries of these programmes. Also, through our civil society organisations, we have extensive cooperation in education as well as in health, agriculture and youth employment.

Qn: What is the trade volume between Tanzania and Finland?

Answer: Trade volume between the two countries is growing fast. According to the data from 2014 to date, the business is now more than 10 times bigger. Tanzanian exports to Finland have grown much faster than its imports. At the moment Finland imports from Tanzania stood at 77.8m US dollar (192.5bn/-).

We mostly import coffee, tea, spices and minerals from Tanzania. Tanzania imports from Finland are worth 146m US dollar (365bn/-) annually and most of the imports are fertilisers and machineries.

We are aware that Tanzania is planning to establish its fertiliser plants, this is a good move. The two countries have been doing great in terms of trade with the exception of 2020 when the World was hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, but from that time, things are picking up well. We are looking forward for Tanzania Ministerial visit to Finland this year, which is expected to boost the business further and cement our relationship in various areas.

QN: Where do you see trade and business going between Finland and Tanzania in the coming years?

Answer: The situation is promising, we expect a boom in the coming years. With a good environment of doing business, it is our hope that Finnish investors will always consider investing in Tanzania. There have been many changes in the investment sector with the Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC) improving the registration of investors in the country through One Stop Facilitation Centre. We also support small and medium-sized companies in various sectors, including tourism, who want to learn more about the opportunities and potential partners in Tanzania.

Qn: As a diplomat, how do you assess the performance of President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s government?

Answer: President Samia is doing a great job. She has managed to set a clear vision where the leadership is going. She took over from the ‘Hapa Kazi tu’ slogan and continues with ‘Kazi Iendelee’, this is clear and good leadership.

President Samia has put more emphasis on empowering women to become active economically and in leadership. We have witnessed the emphasis on enrolment of girl students in schools and many others.

I believe the President is an important role model for many girls and young women.

Moreover, President Samia’s government is supporting the growth of a competitive private sector, which is vital in the development of the country’s economy.

The government seems also to be doing well in the war against corruption. On democracy and politics, President Samia is doing a commendable job. Today we see opposition political parties conducting meetings and peaceful demonstrations. I remember the President even attended one of the meetings along with members from opposition political parties. Furthermore, under President Samia’s leadership we see the more vibrant civil societies and operation of media.

Qn: Finnish development cooperation in Tanzania supports good governance, gender equality and environmental preservation, how do you asses the country performance in those crucial areas?

Answer: Finland cooperates with Tanzania in many areas including in issues related to gender, where we aim at women’s economic empowerment and participation in political leadership as well as work against violence against women and girls. We also support the rights of persons with disabilities. We work closely on these issues with UNwomen, UNFPA and local authorities.

Important steps have been taken in these fields but there is still room for improvement – also in my own country. We support vibrant civil societies to ensure improvement of people’s lives. On good governance, as a I said before, Finland has been cooperating with Tanzania to ensure proper and improved tax collection through training and cooperation between Finnish Tax Administration (Vero) and Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA). Finnish experts have been sharing knowledge with their counterparts in Tanzania with the aim of bringing notable changes in the tax collection system.

In recent years the Finnish Tax Administration (Vero) has been closely cooperating with Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA). Vero has been offering technical assistance in order to strengthen domestic resource mobilisation in Tanzania. Experts from Vero have participated in the project by training the TRA staff in areas of tax compliance, internal auditing, taxpayer services and communication. On environmental preservation, Finland has been partnering with Tanzania in preserving environment through various programmes.

Finland is now considering a new 4-year programme for promoting sustainable forestry in the country, this is among the bilateral development cooperation programmes between our two nations. The Finnish government has allocated 20m Euros (55bn/-) for the programme, which is set to take over the two currently supported programmes, Forest and Value Chain Development (FORVAC) and Private Plantation Programme, which are scheduled to end this year.

The implementation of the programme is expected to involve the Tanzania Forest Services Agency (TFS) and Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism. We have been conducting these programmes in various parts of the country such as Tanga, Iringa, Lindi, Ruvuma, Njombe and many others. The forest sector is one of basic pillars in the country’s economic growth contributing 3.6 per cent of the GDP.

Finland supports the ecosystem services in forests and village plantations, jobs and income generation in forestry, and citizens’ capacity to adapt to climate change. There is more potential in this sector, creation of jobs, supporting the country’s economic growth and contribution to the preservation of the environment.

The programme among other things has impacted the improved forestbased livelihoods and climate resilience, improved quality of ecosystem services based on forests and village plantations, greater number of jobs in forestry and better income generation and improved capacity of citizens, administration and companies to adapt to climate change.

Among the projects that are being successfully implemented in the country are the second phase of the Participatory Plantation Forestry Programme (PFP 2): EUR 10.8million in 2019–2024, Forestry and Value Chains Development programme (FORVAC): EUR 14.15 million in 2018–2024, Support to commercial plantation forestry among small-holders: EUR 1.1 million in 2019– 2023 and Finnish Environment Institute’s project on Increasing Climate Resilience of Zanzibar with Integrated Marine Management and Sustainable Blue Economy (BLUE-ZAN): EUR 1 million in 2023–2026.