TIC executive director Emmanuel Ole Naiko

The Tanzania Investment Centre has urged Tanzanians to refrain from negative beliefs on Chinese investors, but rather they should view them as true friends of African investments.

TIC executive director Emmanuel Ole Naiko made the call yesterday in Dar es Salaam when speaking to journalists on the importance of having Chinese investors in the country.

“It is high time Tanzanians understood the role played by Chinese investors in Tanzania and the rest of the African continent,” he said, urging people to view Chinese investors as true friends rather than enemies of the African continent.

Elaborating, Naiko said that in 2007, China ploughed in ten countries investments amounting to about USD 300 million.

“This is a lot of money, a move which needs to be encouraged,” Ole Naiko explained.

According to the TIC boss, China has over the years shown true interest in the African continent and Tanzania in particular.

Other African countries in which China has heavily invested include Algeria (USD 393milion), Niger (USD 135 million), Nigeria (USD 630 million), Zambia (USD 429 million), and South Africa (USD 702 million).

Others are Egypt where Chinese investors invested USD132 million in 2007, Sudan (USD 575 million), Ethiopia (USD 109 million) and Mauritius (USD 116 million).

Ole Naiko further noted that China was investing heavily in infrastructure development.

He called on the Western media to report positively on Chinese investments in Africa, adding that in recent years people had developed negative thinking about Chinese investors.