ELECTRICITY supply and infrastructure for trade facilitation will get one billion US dollars (over 1.7trillion/-) in the next two years from the World Bank and African Development Bank, visiting US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew has said.

Addressing US and local business leaders in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday evening, Mr Lew said President Barack Obama’s government is committed to improve East Africa’s competitiveness.

He pointed out that the US is a leading contributor to the World Bank and AfDB that are both financing infrastructure and policy reforms across the East African Region.

“Combined, the two banks lend Tanzania about one billion US dollars per year, across a breadth of sectors. Over the next two years, they will commit about one billion US dollars to power and trade infrastructure projects,” the US Treasury Secretary noted.

He said the World Bank and Trademark East Africa, which is also financed by the US and other donors are co-investing in a 565 million US dollars (over 964.9bn/-) project to improve infrastructure and operations at Dar es Salaam Port.

“One cannot talk about trade in Tanzania without thinking about the port of Dar es Salaam. I stopped by the port and saw first-hand the efforts to improve port operations and to support the region’s rapid trade growth,” Mr Lew stressed.

Trade Africa and Power Africa are two US-sponsored initiatives aimed at improving the environment of doing business in Africa.

Supporting the infrastructure that helps move the goods to and from the port more efficiently and providing reliable power supply to businesses will likely boost the country’s competitiveness.

The Secretary commended the East African Community (EAC) bloc as a leading Africa’s regional economic integration with 26 per cent of all trade occurring within the region with support from Trade Africa.

“This includes regional harmonisation, capacity building, reducing non-tariff barriers, greater private sector dialogue and a potential regional investment treaty,” he pointed out.

President Barack Obama, who visited Tanzania last year, has pledged his commitment to assist African countries whose leaders he hosted last August in the first ever US-Africa Leaders’ Summit in Washington.

The summit was a success in bringing together US companies and African leaders in that it culminated in clinching over 14 billion US dollars in commercial agreements.

It also targeted improvement of the environment for businesses on the continent and create jobs and other opportunities for the people of Africa.

President Obama launched Trade Africa in Dar es Salaam and Power Africa in Cape Town, South Africa, during his visit last year, which aim at tackling key constraints across Africa, improved infrastructure and policies for trade to flourish; and reliable electricity to power businesses and light homes.

The US is committing over 8 billion US dollars to Power Africa to support energy sector reforms, investments in generation and access across the continent.

Trade Mark East Africa Country Director, Dr Josephat Kweka, said in Dar es Salaam recently that under the Big Results Now (BRN) initiative, the Central Corridor, which includes Dar es Salaam Port, is being financed to improve infrastructure and non-tariff barriers.

“Under the BRN, we need to remove these checkpoints between Dar es Salaam Port and the borders with Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda, which have been delaying movement of goods to the landlocked neighbouring countries served by our port,” Dr Kweka observed.

He said the number of check points between the country’s prime port will be removed from the current more than 10 to three, at Vigwaza Nyakanazi and Manyoni.

Dr Kweka added that under the BRN, the central railway is also supposed to be upgraded and modernised to allow smooth movement of cargo that will improve efficiency at Dar es Salaam port.

Source:: All Africa

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of TradeMark Africa.