Tanzania is not appealing to Chinese investors only. In fact, during his visit to Robiki Leather City, Kassim Majaliwa, Prime Minister of Tanzania, met a group of Egyptian investors, who are planning to support Tanzania’s leather industry.
Copious herds
“In Tanzania there are rather copious herds: that is why they need investors to build new factories and plants for processing products of animal origin, including leather”, remarked Majaliwa. He also emphasized the efforts recently implemented, a few months ago, by President John Magufuli to foster the industrial sector, alongside his ability to attract foreign investors. Egyptian guests gave a positive feedback: Yasser Mohamed Ahmed Al Maghraby, president of Cairo for Investment and Development Company, highlighted the increase in demand for hides and skins, coming from Egyptian companies.
Foreign capital assets
Egypt might follow China’s example then. Chinese entrepreneurs are about to invest, in Tanzania, in a new industrial site, where they are going to build a big tannery for footwear, accessories and upholstery items. The overall investment will amount to 100 million US dollars. However, Chinese investors will take advantage of a favourite business channel: in fact, in 2013, in Dar Es Salaam, they signed a commercial agreement for exports of tanned leather, therefore avoiding triangulation deals and transactions with other countries.
