Govt Committed to Improve Business Climate – Premier

In a move aimed to attract more investors, the government will maintain conducive environment for investment to facilitate the implementation of its agenda of industrial transformation.

Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa made the promise on Wednesday at a tiles factory construction site at Mkiu Village in Mkuranga District, Coast Region, saying industries would create more opportunities for employment.

"We came up with the agenda of industrial transformation to address the problem of unemployment," said the premier when he visited the area where Goodwill Ceramic Limited is putting up tiles factory.

Mr Majaliwa hailed Coast regional authorities for becoming top in attracting a good number of investors to construct industries in the region. "We directed every regional authority to allocate areas for investment to help implementation of government's agenda of industrial transformation," he observed.

According to Goodwill Ceramic Limited Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr Frank Young, the Phase I of the project that will cost 100 million US dollars, is expected to be finalised in December. "The plant will create more than 5,000 employment opportunities.

It will also fetch about 30bn/- revenues to the government every year," he said. Mr Young added that the Chinese-based company plans to expand the factory to manufacture glass in upcoming phases of the project.

A Member of Parliament (MP) for Mkuranga, Mr Abdallah Ulega, urged the government to construct a port at Kisiju in Mkuranga to facilitate importation after completion of the tiles factory construction. "The port at Kisiju can play a key role in social and economic development of the Coast Region," he said.

The Mkuranga MP said the operations of the new tiles factory might be delayed by supply of natural gas from Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC), saying the Goodwill Ceramic Limited has already requested for supply of natural gas to run the tiles factory.

"The natural gas supply to the tiles factory should not be delayed because pipeline transporting natural gas from Mtwara Region to Dar es Salaam passes some metres away from the project site," he said.

DISCLOSURE: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors, and do not represent the views of equities.com. Readers should not consider statements made by the author as formal recommendations and should consult their financial advisor before making any investment decisions. To read our full disclosure, please go to: http://www.equities.com/disclaimer