Foreign Investment: Tanzania set to review Work Permit Conditions

The government is planning to review conditions for accessing work permits after receiving complaints from embassies that the hurdles blocked potential foreign investors.

Some European and Asian countries are said to face too many difficulties to get the local working permit; a trend that hinder them from investing and do business in Tanzania.

Minister for Foreign Affairs and East African Co-operation Dr Augustino Mahiga admitted that there’s a problem in that area and could affect bilateral investment between the countries.

“I have received requests from 21 countries from Asia and Europe that have embassies here asking the government to look into possibility of reviewing conditions of getting the work permits as many are unable to come to invest due to that,” he said at the weekend.

“We are moving into the industrialization and foreign investors are important since they have modern technologies. We will sit and discuss with representatives of the countries on how we can sort this out. It’s a minor thing that can be discussed,” Dr Mahiga added during the marking of 50th years of diplomatic relations between Switzerland and Tanzania.

He cited Switzerland as one of the leading countries to produce good watches that could also bring the factory into Tanzania instead of importing the products.

Swiss Ambassador to Tanzania Ms Florence Tinguely Mattli told The Citizen that her country is ready to invest here but most of Swiss investors and businessmen were complaining about the working permits.

Ms Mattli said more than 40 Swiss enterprises were operating in Tanzania and most of the local cocoa is exported to her country.

She said that 25 per cent of her country’s population is made up of foreigners as the country hires foreign expertise in different despite having a good number of educated people and high technologies.

“Tanzania is heading to industrialization and the issue of hiring expertise is very important to benefit the local people,” she said adding that there is big potential in agribusiness, oil and gas and minerals.

Source: The Citizen/ allAfrica