Govt, private sector to team up in Bagamoyo SEZs

Professor Kitila Mkumbo

DAR ES SALAAM: THE government has said it will team up with the private sector in executing the Bagamoyo Special Economic Zone (SEZ) project to speed up and attract productive investments.

This was unveiled by the Minister of State in the President’s Office (Planning and Investment) Prof Kitila Mkumbo when briefing the Parliamentary Committee for Governance, Constitution and Legal Affairs in Dar es Salaam on Wednesday.

“This is the focus that the government is currently adopting to engage closely the private sector in implementing projects like the Bagamoyo SEZ,” he said.

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Prof Mkumbo said the revival of the Bagamoyo SEZ project follows the fundamental decision made by President Samia Suluhu Hassan to pursue the project after it stalled for over a decade ago.

He said the government will have to compensate people in these areas in order to have the sufficient land for the project implementation. He said this has been a challenge of taking people’s land and fail to compensate them and ultimately these people return and repossess their land.

He said the government will put basic infrastructures in the Bagamoyo SEZ project area like road network, water, drainage systems, electricity, natural gas network.

“This is how to package better the Bagamoyo SEZ project area in order to attract serious investors,” he said. They said there are many investors in the world but to get serious ones is not an easy task. He stressed, “We need to get a very serious investor to implement this project.” Prof Mkumbo said the investors may team up themselves because the project is big so that they can easily raise funds for executing the project. He said recently they visited the Benin and found them implementing a project which is almost similar to Bagamoyo SEZ using the public private partnership model at 50 per cent shareholding structure.

Last year, the government said at least 11tri/- was needed for the implementation of Bagamoyo SEZ investment project. Of the total amount need, the government said, it will inject 1.6tri/- for availing infrastructure in the area such as roads, water and electricity.

“Basing on the report, we speak of the investment worth 11tri/- for the implementation of the Bagamoyo SEZ,” he said, noting that over 200 industries are expected to be established in the zone.

The Bagamoyo SEZ project will constitute the development of 19 areas for various purposes such as industries, trade, logistics, ports and services.

The Deputy Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for Governance, Constitution and Legal Affairs Dr Selemani Zedi pledged to provide full support to the Bagamoyo SEZ project realisation due to its significance to the country’s economy.

“I want to assure you that the committee will offer all the necessary support to ensure that the project becomes successful,” he noted.

Speaking earlier, the Export and Processing Zones Authority (EPZA) Director General Charles Itembe said the Bagamoyo SEZ project area will be provided with various infrastructures including road network, electricity, water supply and drainage system and natural gas network.

He said 43 per cent of the area for the implementation of the project of about 8676 hectares of land has been compensated.

Some of the benefits of the project include contribution to the economic growth, technological development particularly transferring of skills and jobs creation and increase of marine businesses to support port business. Local companies will also benefit directly and indirectly from the project as well as boosting foreign exchange earnings into the country.