Zanzibar is opening up its 50 plus small islands for high earned but environmental conscious tourism investments under the country's drive to transform the country economically. Zanzibar Investment Promotion Authority (ZIPA) Executive Director, Shariff Ali Shariff told the 'Daily News' here yesterday that the 50 plus small islands are up for grab by serious investors.
"Hopefully, this or next week, the Government will invite investors for ecotourism investments in the small islands... We want heavy investments, which will however preserve the natural environmental appeal of the islets," Mr. Shariff said, noting that prospective investors will be invited to tender, with bidders of the highest land acquisition fee declared winners. He further clarified that the land acquisition fee doesn't imply that the islands are for sale, but that they are merely rented out for investment purposes.
The ZIPA chief said Zanzibar has registered 1,115 investment projects, with 804 projects involving 7.6 billion US Dollars (over 17tri/-) already at various stages of execution. The projects - 467 or 58,1 percent of them in the tourism sector, have the potential of creating 59,642 jobs. Mr. Shariff described the first nine-month period of President Hussein Mwinyi as an investment boom period, noting that between November 2020 and July 31, 2021, the country registered 50 projects, with a total capital of 321 million US Dollars (over 750bn/-) and 3,590 jobs.
"We appreciate President Mwinyi whom we regard as the country's number one investment promoter; he is doing a wonderful job," Mr. Shariff said in an interview. He said aggressive strategies are underway to attract domestic and foreign investors in various economic sectors, especially light industrial production and aquiculture: "We have already identified 18 appropriate areas for fish farming." ZIPA has embarked on working collaborations with experienced investment agencies in other countries to "borrow a leaf" on the most effective strategies to attract investors.
Mr. Shariff said: "We already have an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with TIC (Tanzania Investment Centre) and we are soon signing others with our counterparts in Rwanda, Mauritius and Namibia." The authority's capacity building in terms of investment promotion experts and operational infrastructure is another strategy that the country is applying to succeed in enticing more investors into the country.