Tanzania - A high powered Turkish delegation which arrives in Dar es Salaam on Thursday plans to invest in agriculture, mining, tourism and textiles sectors other than focusing solely on bilateral trade. "We want to invest and create jobs ., bilateral trade in goods and services is not the best way to add value," Turkish Ambassador, Dr Sander Gurbuz said in Dar es Salaam on Wednesday while announcing the arrival of the business delegation led by State Minister responsible for Foreign Trade, Zafer Caglayan. Mr Gurbuz said in the past two years bilateral relations between his country and Tanzania have improved significantly with trade volumes doubling from 50 million US dollars (about 75bn/-) to 100 million US dollars (about 150bn/-).

Mr Gurbuz said that Turkish investors are also already on the ground tapping opportunities in mining in Rukwa Region and extracting aluminium ore on the outskirts of Dar es Salaam.

"They have already invested about 12 million US dollars on these two projects and have created 200 jobs," he said.

Turkey which has a population of over 77 million and an annual trade turnover of over 300 billion US dollars is the world's 16th largest economy and Europe's 6th according to Organization for Economic and Development Cooperation.

The country has one of the largest construction, textile and tourism sectors in Europe which Tanzanian businesses can tap into. "There is a huge potential for Tanzanian businessmen to grow through Turkish economy," Dr Gurbuz noted.

The delegation which will also include 120 Turkish businessmen, journalists, bureaucrats and parliament workers will meet their local peers tomorrow at which four bilateral agreements relating to investment protection, establishment of Turkish-Tanzanian business council and a 50 million grant to support bilateral trade relations, will be signed.

Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC) Acting Executive Director, Ms Beatrice Chonjo said so far more than 200 local businesspersons have registered for the one-day meeting to forge agreements for future cooperation.

"The Turks want to invest other than focusing on trade because data shows that we are importing more than what we export to them," Ms Chonjo noted.

She urged more local businesspersons to come forward and join the local delegations which shall meet with Turkish counterparts to establish relations.

In February last year, President Jakaya Kikwete led a strong delegation that visited Ankara where several initiatives were discussed both at government and private sector levels to improve bilateral trade and diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Finnigan Wa Simbeye

Tanzania Daily News/10/03/2011