Dar es Salaam. Investors from the European Union (EU) on Thursday called on Tanzania to ensure consistency in policies to attract more investments and boost investor confidence.

Speaking under their 107-member European Union Business Group (EUBG), they said sudden and frequent changes in taxation or regulatory instruments have had implications on trade and investments in the country.

Policy unpredictability leads to divided opinions in boardrooms on whether or not to expand businesses, said EUBG chairman Jesper Sorensen.

“An internal survey shows unclear projective trend on whether further investments were expected from EUBG investors,” noted Mr Sorensen during the cocktail party at a city hotel. In a swift rejoinder, Tanzania National Business Council business environment analyst Kais Kabenga said changes in policies, laws and regulations were pressed by the government’s need to improve investment climate.

“If there are serious concerns that require some changes in laws, policies or regulations, the government cannot remain quite,” noted Mr Kabenga.

“The government has good intentions. However, the important issue here is consultation with members of the private sector,” he argued.

“Policy predictability will increase European Union investors’ confidence as they get assured about their investment returns,” he noted.

Historically, Europe and Tanzania have had a strong economic ties in investment and trade.

Quoting the 2016 International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Eurostat statistics, Mr Sorensen said the trade volume between the EU as a bloc and Tanzania stood at €1.3 billion (about Sh3.2 trillion). However, he was not in a position to give the breakdown of the figure. The EU is Tanzania’s second export destination and its third largest trading partner.

Roughly 17 per cent of Tanzania’s global exports are destined for the EU’s 28 member states.

Going by the Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC) data, in terms of investments, approximately 1,000 EU businesses are operating in the country.

This makes the EU one of the largest providers of foreign direct investments (FDI) and key contributor to Tanzania’s labour market and domestic revenues.

To cement trade ties between Tanzania and EU, the EUBG also suggested for enabling policies to support investments, easy access to ministries and a supportive industrial and trade infrastructure.

However, he commended the government for its tireless efforts in improving the services from its agencies such as Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA), Tanzania Bureau of Standards and the newly established Tanzania Shipping Agents Corporation (Tasac).

The efforts, added Mr Sorensen, are in line with pushing forward the economy. A-five year old EUBG expressed its commitment to supporting Tanzania in ensuring that doing business becomes easier.

That also suggests re-enforcing their ties with the likes of Tanzania Private Sector Foundation (TPSF) are immanent in order to jointly push towards a trade facilitating and investment appealing business environments.

“Besides the collaboration with TPSF, we are strengthening our visibility within the diplomatic circles as well as within ministries of the government of Tanzania,” noted Mr Sorensen.

At the same time, he said, they would continue to arrange relevant events for their members.

“We already have some interesting events in the pipeline appealing to both larger members as well as Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs),” he said.

In a wake of inconsistent in business environments, Tanzania was ranked 144 among 190 economies in the ease of doing business, according to the latest World Bank (WB) annual ratings.

Source: The Citizen

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