TZW
Swedish Ambassador to Tanzania, Katarina Rangnitt, in an interview with the ‘Daily News’ in Dar es Salaam, yesterday, said her country was strategically supporting the drive through power projects.
“The country’s devotion to industrialisation is indeed inspiring...and Sweden is proudly supporting the drive through the cooperation we have in the energy sector,” said Ms Rangnitt.
She said parallel to development cooperation, increased trade remains the main driving force for Tanzania’s economic development, “
Our own experience testifies the importance of international trade for development...countries that erect unnecessary trade barriers experience slower economic growth.”
The Ambassador affirmed that Swedish companies are ready to increase their trading partnerships in Tanzania, both as exporters and importers. “
There is indeed great interest from Swedish businesses to trade with their Tanzanian counterparts and to invest in Tanzania.
I think, to realise this, it’s critical for the anticorruption efforts to succeed and improve the business environment,” said Ms Rangnitt.
She said there is an immense opportunity for strong business cooperation between the two countries, with ContinuesSwedish innovations and cutting edge technology promising to particularly enhance Tanzania’s industrialisation drive. Already, Swedish brands like Scania,
Volvo and Ericsson are household names in Tanzania. “...and I know there is great potential for many more companies to follow suit,” noted the Ambassador.
Sweden also supports the private sector development, with special focus on agriculture; the aim being to boost the country’s inclusive growth and ensuring strong infrastructure to enable all farmers to have bank accounts, savings as well as the possibility of taking loans.
With over seven billion US dollars (about 16tri/-) disbursed grants, Sweden is Tanzania’s third largest bilateral donor after the United States of America and United Kingdom.
Ambassador Rangnitt described education as another critical area to address if industrialisation crusade is to materialise. “There are strong research collaborations between Tanzania and Swedish universities to benefit the industrial drive,” said the Ambassador.
She cited the mutual innovation capacity building programme as one of the innovation driven collaborations. Under the programme, the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) and Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology (DIT) recently hosted a delegation from KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden’s leading institution in Engineering and Science.
The delegation sought to develop strong partnership for mutual innovation capacity building in Dar es Salaam and Stockholm, through challenge driven education.
For many years, engineering students at KTH have been engaged in innovation projects, with external partners as part of their regular education.
UDSM and KTH are now forging the partnership to strengthen mutual innovation capacity through challenge driven education.
The two institutions will this year join efforts to deepen the cooperation on further innovation driven projects, with water and sewage issues getting the top priority.
“We are increasingly focusing on improving business and investment cooperation between our countries...and that is one of my key roles as Ambassador here,” said Ms Rangnitt