DAR ES SALAAM: The Tanzania Immigration Service Department has played an important role in welcoming Chinese enterprises and people into the country, resulting in the economic and social progress and living standards of its citizens.
The remarks were given by the Ambassador of China to Tanzania, Ms Chen Mingjian, during the handover ceremony for the donation of teaching equipment from the Embassy of China to the Tanzania Immigration Department.
“As we all know, immigration is a system by which people move from one country to another, promoting local economic growth as well as benefiting the local population,” she said.
She added that, “Since the last century, China has undertaken various projects in African countries and Tanzania has been at the forefront,”
Ms Mingjian noted that it follows her past two-month call to Immigration Department Commissioner General Dr Anna Makakala, who told her about the difficulties the Tanzania Regional Immigration Training Academy (TRITA) was facing.
“And today, I proudly stand here, telling you that a friend in need is indeed a friend. I do hope the donation of teaching equipment could help your (Immigration) trainings and improve the capacity building of Tanzanian colleagues in the TRITA and Immigration Department. She noted
The equipment support includes laptops and desk desktop computers, Video conference TV, smart board, projector, public address (PA) system, Digital camera, binoculars, audio mixers and servers costing over 49m/-.
Moreover, Ambassador Mingjian revealed that this year marks the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by President Xi Jinping and China will hold the third Belt and Road Forum of International Cooperation in Beijing this October, as in the last ten years, Belt and Road cooperation has achieved fruitful outcomes in Tanzania.
Elaborating further, she said that in 2013, the bilateral trade volume between China and Tanzania was only 3.7 billion US dollars, and last year, it reached 8.3 billion US dollars, an increase of 125 per cent in 10 years.
Of which, the average bilateral trade growth in 2021 and 2022 is more than 30 per cent each year, which is higher than most African countries.
On her part, Dr Makakala, apart from expressing her gratitude and appreciation to the government of China for the historical friendship and cooperation, also commended the Chinese Embassy for supporting the Immigration Department on various training items that will improve competency and professionalism among the immigration functionaries with regard to service delivery.
“Indeed, I am very delighted to receive your donation and I hope it will make a significant impact in the department,” she said.
She said the cooperation may play an indispensable role, especially during the implementation of other pending issues they discussed in their previous meeting, such as the establishment of the Confucius Center at TRITA.
