AGAIN, in the historical annals, Tanzania-US relations are marking another record following the official visit of the US Vice- President Kamal Harris into Africa and giving priority the East African country in her itinerary.
Without any element of doubt, the US government has been supporting multi-billion projects in Tanzania, particularly in the health sector to address challenges of HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, family planning, reproductive health, nutrition, maternal, newborn and child health.
For instance, in February this year, the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) announced a two-year budget amounting to 827,801,250 million US Dollars, equivalent to 1.9tri/- for Tanzania for the period starting from October 2024 to September 2026.
In another reflection, statistics of tourist arrivals into Tanzania last year, indicated that the US was leading with 100,600, followed by France (100,371), Germany (67,718), the UK (60,116) and Poland (46,431).
The US Census Bureau further showed that in January the trade was in favour of Tanzania after exporting 24.8 million US dollars to the US against 18.1 million US dollars, signifying a good trend ahead.
On agriculture-trade, Tanzania is already enjoying a duty-free market with the US under The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and Generalised System of Preferences (GSP).
Again, in December last year, the top exports of the US to Tanzania were vaccines, toxins, tractors, machines and medicaments whereas during the same period, the top imports were precious stones, non-kit suits and coffee.
With the above background among others, the visit of the US Vice President Harris to Tanzania is a rare and golden opportunity that also strengthens deeper friendship between the two countries.
It is a show that Tanzania’s foreign diplomacy is for development and attracts the interests leaders who are champions of peace, trade in a win-win situation and above all mapping the country’s investment potentials to exploit.
This is another show of how of President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s Royal Tour has drawn attention of the country globally and opening up the country to the rest of the world.
The US Vice President tour had also come at the right time when the President (Dr Samia), on Wednesday received a report of the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) which she vowed to implement transparently.
It is another gesture to the US and other donors that any fund forwarded to Tanzania will be used transparently and accordingly so that the grassroots projects change the lives of Tanzanians as envisioned.
As the US Vice President Harris, is still in the country, she should feel at home, because Tanzania is friendly, secure and provides all in terms of investment opportunities and tourist attraction sites she would long to go and visit. Karibu Tanzania.
