Tanzania’s current administration has placed a huge emphasis
on growing its economy via establishing trade relationships both within Africa
and with global partners
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“The main objective was to link Tanzania to Burundi and the
Democratic Republic of Congo,” said Samia Suluhu Hassan, the president of
Tanzania.
“This is a railway that is going to open up Tanzania and
link it to the eastern side of DRC where there is a lot of cargo that needs to
be transported on the ports on the Indian Ocean to the global market,” the
president added.
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This railway deal is currently set at $2.2 billion and is
slated to be completed in 2026. If completed, the SGR railway would be the most
ambitious in Africa, standing as the longest stretch of the modern railway line
on the continent. Read the story here.
However, according to a recent report by The Citizen, a
Tanzanian-based news agency, this “standard gauge railway (SGR) to
neighboring landlocked countries has put Kenya’s plan to control East Africa’s
logistics corridor to a fresh test months after Kenya’s line hit a dead end in
Naivasha, reigniting the rivalry between the two biggest nations in the
region.”
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In effect, the trade route competition between the two East
African nations, Kenya and Tanzania would be intensified.
In 2014, Kenya signed a tripartite agreement with the
governments of its East African neighbors, Rwanda and Uganda to build a
standard gauge railway from Mombasa through Kampala Uganda to Kigali Rwanda.
However, this project was cut short, due to a last-minute
fallout with its Chinese construction partners in China.
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Experts have noted that for Kenya to maintain its trade
prominence on the East African Bloc, it must move to complete the last phase of
this railway.
“Whoever completes the railway fast—Tanzania or Kenya—will
dominate the trade in the region,” said Mr. Ikiara, an economist and
former transport permanent secretary in President Mwai Kibaki’s government.
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“At the moment, it looks as if Tanzania might win East
Africa’s railway race by linking cargo markets in Burundi, Rwanda, the DRC, and
Uganda with Tanzanian seaports,” Zajontz, a research fellow at the Centre
for International and Comparative Politics at Stellenbosch University in South
Africa, said.
- · Tanzania’s SGR railway line to DRC is set to be completed in 2026.
- · Once completed, this railway line could pose a threat to Kenya’s stronghold in the East African region.
- · Kenya has a sub-continental railway line of its own, which is yet to be completed.
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