Our country and the Republic of Tanzania have established diplomatic relations as early as the last century.
The two sides also maintain quite close economic and trade relations and industrial cooperation, such as the Tanzania-Zambia Railway East Africa Trade and Logistics Industrial Park Comprehensive Service Cooperation Zone.
In 2013, our country also reached a consensus with the Tanzanian side, agreeing to the Tanzanian side's request to help them build a port.
This project can cost more than 10 billion yuan.
After the construction of the port, Tanzania's outward-looking economy can receive important support.
What is surprising is that although our country is willing to help, Tanzania unilaterally tore up the contract in 2019.
As for the reason, it is probably to show goodwill to United Kingdom and Japan, and now they also regret it.
1. Cooperation between China and Tanzania
Tanzania's development situation is exactly the same as the stereotype that many African countries have given us, that is, poverty and backwardness.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Tanzania became a "dominion" and a "mandate" of the United Kingdom.
It was not until the mid-to-late 20th century that Tanzania broke free from United Kingdom colonial rule and established itself independently.
Immediately after the founding of the People's Republic of China, reforms were carried out at the economic level, and reform measures for nationalization and a planned economy began to be introduced.
However, the launch of the "Ujamah" socialist movement, which was seriously detached from national conditions, also led to a serious lag in economic development.
In recent years, Tanzania has paid more and more attention to international exchanges and cooperation.
The emphasis began to be on the diplomatic dimension, and the introduction of investment, construction projects, and economic growth were also achieved.
However, most of the related industrial cooperation and investment introduction are aimed at solving Tanzania's domestic infrastructure problems.
This may have a positive impact on the economic level in a certain cycle, but it cannot fully promote Tanzania's economic vitality.
Tanzania's economy is still dominated by agriculture, and in normal years, it can barely achieve self-sufficiency in food, but it cannot rely on agriculture to bring certain stimuli to economic development.
The production technology at the industrial level is quite low, and the market size is very small. Even some conventional consumer goods are very dependent on imports.
As for the tertiary industry, it has failed to form a complete industrial system. It can be seen that the development of the three major industries in Tanzania is not coordinated.
Of course, Tanzania has a land area of only 94.5 square kilometers, and the increase in market size has inherent limitations, which is not suitable for the development of large-scale basic manufacturing.
Aware of this problem, Tanzania began to focus on the level of industrial exports.
After all, Tanzania is still quite rich in natural resources.
In addition to the extremely rich reserves of 44,000 cubic feet of natural gas, Tanzania also has a wide variety of mineral resources.
For example, gold, diamonds, coal and all kinds of precious stones. Its mineral reserves are even ranked 5th in the whole of Africa.
What's more, Tanzania itself also has the advantage of geographical location, Tanzania is located south of the equator in eastern Africa and bordered by the India Ocean in the east.
With the extraction of mineral resources and large-scale exports, Tanzania is better able to promote the country's economic development.
Unfortunately, Tanzania does not have a comprehensive large-scale international port, which limits the volume of Tanzanian commodity exports.
To this end, Tanzania sent a request to our country in 2013, hoping that the mainland could help them build a large-scale integrated port.
As for the demands of the Tanzanian side, our country is naturally very willing to help.
After all, when our country returned to the United Nations, the Tanzanian side also voted in favour.
At the same time, in the previous development, our country has also helped Tanzania to build the Tanzania-Zambia railway, and the two sides have always maintained close economic and trade exchanges and industrial cooperation.
This time, our country naturally did not shirk its responsibility as a great power, so it agreed to Tanzania's request to build a port in Bagamoyo.
After friendly exchanges between the two parties, a consensus was reached and the corresponding agreement contract was signed.
It is worth noting that, according to the original project contract, the capital investment of this project exceeded 10 billion US dollars.
The port is expected to be fully completed and ready for market use between 2020 and 2021.
You must know that at that time, the main port in Tanzania was the capital Dares Salaam, and its container handling capacity was only 800,000 containers.
However, after the completion of the construction of this port, the annual container handling capacity of the Tanzanian side will reach about 20 million.
This can indeed greatly improve the efficiency of Tanzania's export-oriented trade.
However, the situation of this project has changed before it has been fully put into construction.
As a result of the change of power in Tanzania, the new president does not seem to be taking this cooperation project seriously.
In addition, there were many difficulties in the transfer of funds from the Tanzanian side, so the project was also put on hold.
2. Showing goodwill to Britain and Japan, and taking the initiative to tear up the 10 billion contract
A few years after the contract was signed, the construction of the project has not yet begun, but Tanzania needs to compensate the displaced people.
The compensation is only about 28 million, but Tanzania cannot get the same money.
Therefore, our country has also generously expressed its ability to help the Tanzanian side solve these problems.
It seemed that the construction of the project could finally begin, but Tanzania unilaterally tore up the contract, and the reason given was that our country's offer was too high at that time.
Tanzania's economic development is not good, and there are inevitably corresponding difficulties in fiscal allocation.
Naturally, we are unable to support the relevant port construction projects, so our country will definitely provide Tanzania with a certain degree of funds and loans on top of this project.
As for the construction party, it will definitely be dominated by mainland enterprises.
After all, Tanzania's industry is relatively backward, while our country has deep experience and advanced technology in infrastructure.
After the construction of the port is completed, our country will have the right to use the port for 99 years in return.
In fact, such an offer is quite reasonable, but Tanzania still thinks that our country's offer is too high, and it is suspected of occupying the port.
Therefore, they unilaterally tore up the contract. In fact, this is also related to the instigation of United Kingdom and Japan.
After the mainland and Tanzania reached a corresponding project cooperation, the United Kingdom and Japan used the 33-year right to confuse Tanzania.
Due to the consideration of political factors and the lower offer, Tanzania did not think deeply about it, and immediately completely fell to the side of Britain and Japan, showing goodwill to Britain and Japan.
But what they didn't expect was that this decision made them regret it.
3. Now they regret it
After terminating cooperation with our country, United Kingdom and Japan also immediately took over the construction of the port project in Tanzania.
However, United Kingdom and Japan do not seem to be cooperating with Tanzania sincerely.
They did not send any personnel to help them build the port, and the investment they negotiated before the port was also delayed, which also put the Tanzanian side in an extremely embarrassing situation.
However, in order to complete the construction of the port, Tanzania can only swallow its anger. Eventually, it took several years for the new port to be built.
However, when the Tanzanian side went to inspect it, it found that the construction of the port was far from meeting expectations.
United Kingdom and Japan have only slightly added to the mainland's construction base, but this is far from Tanzania's expectations.
It is no exaggeration to say that the port was still a semi-finished building. This is also a great regret for the decision made in Tanzania.
After realizing his mistake, the new president of Tanzania personally flew to the mainland to visit and renegotiate with the mainland the possibility of restarting the port project.
In the end, the mainland agreed to Tanzania's request, regardless of its previous suspicions.
Of course, the conditions between the two sides also had to be redefined, and then our country quickly sent personnel to restart the project.
With the mainland's strong infrastructure capacity, the construction of the port has been completed in just four years.
epilogue
In 2013, Tanzania asked our country to help them build a large international port, and the mainland was naturally very willing to help.
However, under the instigation of United Kingdom and Japan, Tanzania unilaterally tore up the tens of billions of contracts with China and turned to cooperate with United Kingdom and Japan.
This unwise decision did not allow Tanzania to acquire a large international port, but instead wasted a lot of time and capital costs.
In the end, Tanzania also realized its mistake and sent another request to our country, and the mainland also helped it complete the construction of the port.
Now that the port has been fully constructed, it also provides important support for Tanzania's economic and trade aspects.
Presumably, Tanzania is also aware of who is the real "brother" and who is the country that can really help them get out of poverty and step on the road to prosperity.
Resources:
Blossom History 2024.7.13 "In order to show goodwill to Britain and Japan, Tanzania took the initiative to tear up the contract with China of 10 billion, and now regrets it"
Yew Wah 2024.7.13 "Treachery! In order to curry favor with Britain and Japan, Tanzania finally tasted the consequences after suspending the project with China's super 10 billion yuan"
Sogou Encyclopedia Tanzania