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Tanzania: Business Team Gets Ready for East African Community Zone Tour
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The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
16 May 2008
Posted to the web 16 May 2008
Pius Rugonzibwa
About 60 local businessmen will make a visit to other East African Community member states as a study tour, in the second week of August.
The businessmen will visit Kenya, Uganda Rwanda and Burundi to study among other things how business communities in those countries operate, and use the tour to create business links like investments and supply contracts.
Dr Diodorus Kamala, the Minister of East African Cooperation, made this announcement when addressing a press conference yesterday in the city, saying it was high time the Tanzanian business community pushed for familiarisation with counterparts in the region and attract business opportunities and investments.
"We encourage interested businessmen to take advantage of this chance to prepare their business profiles, ready for the trip.
Among advantages the trip will provide is learning how to manage human resources in the regional environment to remain competitive," he said.
Earlier, reporters asked whether the language of communication affects Tanzania businessmen when interacting with counterparts in Kenya and Uganda where English is mostly used.
Responding, Dr Kamala said Tanzanians should not allow fear to creep in when it comes to using language tools as Kiswahili was well spoken in the region.
"But if it is found that English is mostly used, businessmen may hire communication experts for rapid improvement in that aspect," the minister advised.
"Language should not be a problem any more.
If I may ask, how did the Chinese manage to shine in business while they only speak the Chinese language? We can as well use our well spoken languages," he affirmed.
What was important for the Tanzanian business community was to ensure there is a good infrastructure for the smooth distribution of products and the promotion of products using business marketing firms or public relations companies.
Business is a special skill that can be achieved without necessarily depending on the language of business partners, the minister insisted.
"After all you may find we are speaking very nice English than other countries in the region, Oxford like," he teased.
The government will continue supporting the business community in the country as it was doing through the Export Credit Guarantee (ECG),, he said, citing the Board of External Trade (BET) and the Small Industries Development Organization (SIDO) as instituted to help enterprises to develop.
With personal initiatives and quick learning of business techniques, Tanzanians are equally capable of being competitive, the minister emphasised.
Dr Evans Rweikiza, executive director of the Tanzania Private Sector Foundation (TPSF) said business profiles presented will be scrutinized to make sure they meet set standards and criteria.
Unlike in the past, where Tanzanian businessmen used to travel to Europe and the US for business contacts, now the East African region is quickly becoming potentially strategic for businesses, and it is advisable to win as many markets as possible in the area, he said.
"If we fail to get qualified profiles from individual businessmen, we will then ask business bodies like TCCIA to verify the integrity of businessmen interested in the mission," he further stated.
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Dr. Rweikiza said the deadline for submission of the profiles is June 16, with late presenters likely to miss the trip and hence drain the likely business opportunities as well.
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