This business-like approach is so deeply engrained in the country’s current government ideology that in December, it was announced that Tanzania would partner with China to build the final section of the 2,102 km SGR railway to the Democratic Republic of Congo. .
“The main objective is to connect Tanzania to Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo,” said Samia Suluhu Hassan, President of Tanzania.
“This is a train that will open Tanzania and connect it to the eastern part of the DRC, where a lot of cargo needs to be transported in ports in the Indian Ocean to the global market,” the president added.
This railway deal is currently set at $2.2 billion and is scheduled to be completed in 2026. If completed, the SGR railway will be the most ambitious in Africa, being the longest modern railway line on the continent. Read the story here.
However, according to a new report by ResidentsTanzanian-based news agency, this “The standard gauge train (SGR) to neighboring countries has put Kenya’s plan to control East Africa’s logistics corridor into several months of trial after the Kenyan line got stuck in Naivasha, sparking competition between the region’s two biggest countries.”
As a result, the trade route competition between the two East African countries, Kenya and Tanzania will increase.
In 2014, Kenya signed a tripartite agreement with neighboring East African governments Rwanda and Uganda to build a standard railway line from Mombasa through Uganda’s Kampala to Rwanda’s Kigali.
However, this project was cut short, due to a last-minute fallout with a Chinese construction partner in China.
Experts have noted that Kenya to maintain its trade superiority in the East African Block, must move to complete the final stage of this railway line.
“Whoever completes the train the fastest—Tanzania or Kenya—will dominate trade in the region,” said Mr. Ikiara, an economist and former permanent secretary for transport in President Mwai Kibaki’s administration.
“Now, it looks like Tanzania can win the East African rail race by linking cargo markets in Burundi, Rwanda, DRC, and Uganda with Tanzanian ports,” he said. Zajontz, a researcher at the Center for International and Comparative Politics at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa, said.