China provides loans to Tanzania

DAR ES SALAAM,Tanzania- China signed a series of agreements with Tanzania here on Monday, providing aid packages amounting to about 95 million US dollars with a focus on boosting infrastructure in the East African country.

The visiting Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce Jiang Yaoping signed the agreements with Tanzanian Finance Minister Mustafa Mkulo after co-chairing the fourth meeting of China-Tanzania Joint Economic and Trade Commission held at Kilimanjaro Hotel.

The agreements include provision by China's Exim Bank of 65 million dollars in preferential loan for the mobile telecom network construction, of 15 million dollars in interest-free loan for projects to be agreed upon by both sides.

In addition, Chinese government offered a grant of 10 million dollars to Tanzanian government and a batch of 75 vehicles, including 30 cars and 45 buses, worth 5.7 million dollars to improve public transportation in the country.

Jiang said that Chinese government would continue to encourage Chinese enterprises to import more products from Tanzania and increase investment in agriculture, manufacturing, infrastructure and other sectors in the country.

Mkulo assured the visiting Chinese delegation comprising about 40 executives from 28 Chinese enterprises, banks and investment funds, that Tanzania is committed to providing more conducive investment environment and addressing the bottlenecks that restrained the further growth of the economy.

Statistics show that the trade between China and Tanzania for the three quarters this year increased by 23.6 percentage point compared to the same period last year, reaching 1.5 billion dollars.

Jiang is currently on a two-day visit to Tanzania after he wrapped up the visit to the East African Community Secretariat in Arusha, Tanzania, where he signed a framework agreement on economic and trade cooperation last week with the five member bloc.