State for investor-friendly laws

PRESIDENT Samia Suluhu Hassan has directed the Attorney General (AG) to look at the possibility of having a legislation that is favourable for investors, in a bid to remove bottlenecks frustrating investments in the country.

President Samia issued a directive in Dodoma yesterday, when officiating the Public Bar Association Annual General Meeting (AGM), where she insisted that the country should look at the investment law with a keen eye in efforts to boost the economy.

President Samia also launched the Office of the Attorney General Management of Information System (OAGMIS), which has a Roll of State Attorneys with 2,652 registered attorneys as of this writing.

“We need to review our laws related to investments, so as to protect investors. The existing laws do not give confidence to investors especially in times of resolving disputes,” she said.

The president underscored the need for Tanzania laws to allow investors’ recourse to international arbitration, instead of strictly keeping it local to resolve investment disputes, saying such tendency was threatening the country’s bilateral investment treaties and discouraging investment opportunities.

“We have opened this country to a wider space and investors are coming to Tanzania in large numbers. This move can as well attract several business disputes, meaning our laws should be much more amicable to resolve them for the benefit of all parties involved,” she noted.

She added: “Some investors want to resort to a third party when there is a dispute, but we do not allow that and insist on handling them ourselves.

There are disputes that can be resolved within the nation, but there are some that investors want to go to a third party, so it’s important to look at this so that investors do not flee from us.

There is evidence that some of the investors decided not to come to Tanzania because of such provisions.”
She also called for fast tracking of disputes before they seek legal redress in the country’s courts. This, she said, will serve the country from losing taxes and revenues that could be amassed from investments.

According to the Head of State, if the country was well protected to remove unnecessary disputes, many investors were likely to come to the country, a move that was likely to boost revenue collections as well as heightening the country’s economy.

“It was imperative for the country to put up measures to attract more huge investment that can boost the economy,” she said, while underlining the role the Public Bar Association could play to stimulate the country’s economic growth.

She told them that they have the responsibility of helping the government to widen scope of tax collection, protect the country’s economy, while in the same vein, fulfill their responsibilities of protecting the rights of investors, business entities, people’s properties and their rights.

In 2018, the Parliament encoded the Public Private Partnership (Amendment) Bill 2018 (the PPP Bill) into law. The bill includes a provision requiring foreign investors to resolve disputes exclusively through Tanzania’s domestic courts, without recourse to international arbitration.

The president assured the lawyers that she was ready to increase several allowances for state attorneys if they looked at the best laws to help the country attract investors.

“We are ready to give you the allowances in efforts to build up your morale, so that you can contribute to the country’s economy,’’ she said.

According to the president, state attorneys were a big army in contributing to the country’s economy, insisting that in protecting the economy of the country, there was nothing but protecting business and investment.

“You are defence persons, who do not use guns but pens through the laws, so I ask you to go and protect our economy legally, so that this country can invest more in the economy,’’ she said.

Speaking earlier, the Minister for Constitution and Legal Affairs, Dr Damas Ndumbaro said that State Attorneys were at the forefront in conflict resolution in the country and signing of all crucial contracts for the benefit of the nation.

“Therefore, in the cause of discharging their duties, they have been keen on good governance and as a minister for the docket, I can assure you that I am fully satisfied by their work,’’ said Dr Ndumbaro.

The Attorney General (AG), Dr Eliezer Feleshi, had earlier asked President Samia to pay special attention to the necessity for Tanzania to establish an arbitration centre, which would broaden the range of cases that can be handled involving business and investment issues.

The centre, according to Dr Feleshi, will lessen the necessity for such hearings to be managed by foreign councils and allow the nation to begin using local arbitrators with complete criteria.

He stated that the meeting’s theme, which is “Implementing the government’s responsibilities based on the law is an important tool for the development of the nation,” has been influenced by the fact that the government incurs significant financial losses as a result of lawsuits filed against it in domestic and international courts in numerous nations that are based on the absence of key stakeholders.