Tanzania considers reviving $10bn port project

Tanzania's President Samia Suluhu Hassan takes the oath of office after the death of predecessor John Magufuli, in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Source: Reuters

Tanzania inked a framework agreement in 2013 with China Merchants Holdings International to construct the port and a special economic zone that aimed to transform the east African country into a trade and transport hub to rival its neighbours.

The government of the late president John Magufuli, whom Hassan succeeded after he died in March, had complained that the conditions proposed by the investors, which included Oman's State General Reserve Fund, were commercially unviable.

China Merchants, China's largest port operator, said in 2019 that years of negotiations with Tanzania had failed to produce an agreement.

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The port was to be located in Bagamoyo, about 75km north of Dar es Salaam.

"I would like to share with you the good news that we have started negotiations on reviving the whole Bagamoyo port project," Hassan said during a gathering with the private sector in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam.