Zanzibar — ZANZIBAR: ZANZIBAR'S new Investment Act, 2023 is arguably a friendly legal document to benefit investors, President Hussein Ali Mwinyi has said.
He noted that plans are underway for signing and launching it in public instead of the traditional way of assenting the Bill into law in the State House.
"I believe our investment law is the best! It was brought to me for signing, but I proposed to have the document signed in the public, so that members of the public can witness," Dr Mwinyi said here, when he officially laid the foundation stone for the construction of a five-star Hotel dubbed 'Crown Hotel and Resort at Mbweni area.
He said that the law includes 15 years of corporate tax exemption and other incentives particularly for strategic investment, and also provides more favourable conditions for investors.
Dr Mwinyi said that having good investment law will definitely attract more investors to Zanzibar and praised the Zanzibar Investments Promotion Authority (ZIPA) for commendable work in advertising the Islands to local and foreign investors.
He said that Zanzibar still needs many high-class Hotels for its growing number of tourists after both governments took different measures, including 'Dr Samia's Royal Tour Film' to boost tourism.
Dr Mwinyi explained that Zanzibar is now ahead of Kilimanjaro and Dar es Salaam (Mwalimu Julius Nyerere International Airport) in receiving more flights, "This means we will beat the one-million tourists annually target by 2025."
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The Minister of State- Office of the President (Labour, Economy and Investment) Mr Mudrik Ramadhan Soraga said the ongoing reforms initiated by Dr Mwinyi, such as the digitalised one-stop-centre system, is enabling Zanzibar to become the best place for investors.
"We thank you Mr President for the workable directives. We further look forward to a bright future in attracting more foreign investors," Mr Soraga said, adding that Zanzibar now stands to compete with other islands in terms of investment attraction.
ZIPA Executive Director, Mr Sharif Ali Sharif they have been recording great success including leasing 16 idle islands to foreign investors due to good planning, advertisement through different ways including royal tour films, friendly laws, and peace and political stability.
Mr Nabil Said, the Crown Hotel and Resort Project Manager, commanded the Zanzibar government for the enabling environment, adding that so far they have used more than US 20 million dollars (estimated 50bn/-) to the new hotel that opens its doors later this year and employ not less than 200 workers.
