Dar Es Salaam — TANZANIA has continued to impress in attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the East African Community (EAC) and is now ranked second after Uganda.

The Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC) Executive Director, Mr Emmanuel Ole Naiko, told journalists in Dar es Salaam on Thursday while presenting the World Investment Report (WIR) that this is an impressive performance.

"There is stiff competition among EAC member states in creating conducive investment climate for FDI and in this connection Tanzania has faired well," Mr Naiko said.

In the 2009 WIR, Tanzania attracted projects worth 645 million US dollars (about 903bn/-) while Uganda netted 799 US dollars.

He said in the performance of Tanzania in terms of investment inflows between 2007 and 2009, the tourism sector led by attracting 631 projects valued at around three billion US dollars (more than 4tr/-).

Other sectors which faired well include manufacturing (596 projects), commercial building (313 project) and the economic infrastructure recorded 255 projects.

He said that in order to attract more FDI, the government is working on a plan that envisages reducing business costs and simplify business legislation and other measures. Recently, the government reinstated incentives that had been banned.

The ban led to a sharp decline of FDI by 42 per cent. Mr Naiko said that currently, the TIC and Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) committee is refining deemed capital goods that will be accorded tax relief as capital goods stated under customs and tariff book.

In recent years, the government removed incentives to sectors with high comparative and competitive advantage over other countries.

He said the 2009 WIR emphasized DFI on agriculture and Tanzania adopted the 'Kilimo Kwanza' initiative and after hosting World Economic Forum (WEF) last May where Eight Transnational Corporations to develop the Southern Agricultural Growth-Tanzania Corridor (SAGCOT) were involved.

"We assure the world that we continue to utilize other Transnational Corporations (TNC) that have chosen Tanzania as their investment location to help drive other priority sectors including Infrastructure, extraction Industries, agro industries and tourism," he said.

He said as the WIR 2010 focuses on investing in low carbon economy, there is need to incorporate TNC with FDI into economic and development strategies and channel them to poor countries like Tanzania.

He said that channelling low carbon FDI to key sectors like energy, industries, transport and construction encourages waste management.

Agriculture and forestry will definitely revamp the private sector's contribution to the economy.

The Deputy Country Director of the United Nations Development Programme, Louise Chamberlaine, expressed the need for policy makers to maximize the benefits and minimize risks of low carbon foreign investment.

"National strategies to promote low carbon foreign investment and related technology dissemination need to be co-ordinated with climate change and investment policies at the international level," she said.