Posted on :Monday , 15th August 2016

Dar es Salaam — Trade between China and Tanzania has hit $5billion according to the Chinese Embassy in Tanzania.

The Deputy China Ambassador to Tanzania Gou Haodong confirmed to East African Business Week that they will continue to invest in Dar while improving their bilateral ties and economic cooperation as trade between the two countries.

He was exclusively speaking to East African Business during a one day seminar on Work, Residence Permits and Importance of Collective Bargaining Agreements to Chinese Businesses in Tanzania.

"This kind of training will increase the performance of Chinese here while adding value to the country's GDP which will foster social and economic development," Haodong said.

Haodong said such training will improve bilateral ties between the two countries while harnessing trade, investment and businesses.

"I can assure you that the mutual understanding between Chinese employers' organ with the Tanzanian counterpart will bring positive results in the near future including creation of more jobs for Tanzanians," said the deputy ambassador.

The Association of Tanzania Employers (ATE) Executive Director, Dr. Aggrey Mlimuka at the training said they have teamed up with the China Enterprise Confederation (CEC) to help Chinese business people in improve their understanding of the Tanzania business environment, labor laws; work permits procedures and other related issues.

"We have invited our counterparts from Norway, China and Kenya to share with us their experience and best practices in their respective countries in order to revamp and improve our trade and business relations between Tanzania and China," he said.

He underscored that the main focus on the seminar is to educate the Chinese business community here in Tanzania the labour laws and collective bargaining agreements to Chinese businesses in the country in order to avoid misunderstanding and chaos at the workplaces.

Dr. Mlimuka reiterated that ATE will continue to educate the Chinese business community to pave way for more investments from Chinese people.

At the moment, they have translated Tanzanian labour laws into the Chinese language, a milestone in the understanding of the labour laws.

The Tanzania Labour Commissioner Hilda Kabisa said the government plans to continue educating foreigners including Chinese on how to apply working permits to avoid government legal action.

She currently has 8,000 applications for work permits from different foreigners who seek to work and carry out investments in Tanzania.

Kabisa said through the Non-Citizen Regulation act of 2015 described clearly on which clear procedures that the foreigner should follow to acquire a working permit that allow him or her to start a business.