A SENIOR Danish cabinet minister is in Tanzania for a working visit where he will conduct an overview and consultations on numerous areas of bilateral cooperation between the two countries.

Dan Jørgensen, the Development Cooperation and Global Climate Policy minister in Denmark, will stay in the country until April 4, on the basis of a press statement yesterday by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation.

The minister’s visit comes ahead of finishing up budgetary allocations for the various ministries as the legislature convenes for its marathon budget meeting starting this week to the end of June, observers noted.

The minister is expected to hold talks with the Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation minister January Makamba, Planning and Investment state minister Prof. Kitila Mkumbo, Union and Environment state minister Dr Selemani Jafo and Finance minister Dr. Mwigulu Nchemba.

He will have meetings with top executives of various Danish supported projects and institutions, including the Comprehensive Community Based Rehabilitation in Tanzania (CCBRT) covering disability and maternal health; the statement indicated.

He will then visit Chemi & Cotex Industries at Mbezi, northwards of Dar es Salaam to inspect youth skills training and job creation initiatives, along with vocational training programmes empowered by the Danish International
 Development Agency (DANIDA), it said.

He will take a trip to Iringa Region to view Udzungwa National Park, the Udzungwa Ecological Research Centre and the Southern Tanzania Elephant Program (STEP), plus a glance at an environmental initiative for alternative charcoal production, the statement affirmed.

The minister is also expected at the Kilombero Sugar Plantation and out-growers community to view how the estates and the community work together.

Tanzania and Denmark have had close relations since the mid-1960s as the Scandinavian state like its partners Norway and Sweden took a keen interest in a democratic transition to socialism under President Julius Nyerere.

Tanzania has been a preferred recipient of Danish development assistance, which chroniclers say it surpasses any other country in Africa.

Danish support has focused on government budget support and specific initiatives in health, tax collection improvement and modernisation plus the business sector programme support (BSPS) to improve the doing business environment.

There has been continued support for investment policy reform since 1997 with the Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC), which has similarly registered 79 investment projects from Denmark, valued at $110.77m.

They are expected to create more than 3,000 jobs when fully operational, spanning a range of sectors like agriculture, tourism,  manufacturing, commercial buildings construction, financial institutions, among others.

The number of Danish tourists in 2019 stood at 15,091 and dropped to 4,000 the following year with the COVID 19 pandemic, and catching up thereafter, officials said.