Zanzibar’s President Hussein Ali Mwinyi looks on during the signing of the MoU with the Oman Investment Authority at State House Zanzibar on Thursday, January 20, 2022.
The government of Zanzibar and the Oman Investment Authority has signed a memorandum of understanding to study the feasibility of a project to rehabilitate, develop and operate the Malindi Tourist Port, the authority has announced.
The MoU was signed by the minister of Transport and communication Amour Hamil Bakar and Sheikh Nasser Al Harthy from Oman’s Investment Authority in the presence of President Hussein Mwinyi at State House Zanzibar.
Speaking immediately after the signing, President Mwinyi said his government will continue wooing investors to the isles to make sure the five year development programme is achieved.
“There are certain areas where the private sector cannot come in such as construction of roads, these we shall do ourselves, but other sectors which are business oriented shall be handled by the private sector,” said President Mwinyi.
The new reverberated far and beyond with Oman news agency announcing the deal with Zanzibar.
“The Oman Investment Authority signed a memorandum of understanding with the Zanzibar government, according to which the authority and its subsidiaries will study the feasibility of a project to rehabilitate, develop and operate the Malindi Tourist Port and develop the waterfront, as well as transfer commercial activities from the current port to the new Mangapwani port,” Oman News Agency, said.
Sami bin Abdullah Al Sinani, Senior Director of Logistics and Infrastructure Services at the Oman Investment Authority, said in a statement that the memorandum of understanding aims to maximize the Sultanate of Oman’s benefit from the Belt and Road Initiative, which passes through a group of ports in Asia and Africa, and to build on the historical Omani relations with East Africa, one of the economically promising regions.
He added that the memorandum holds investment opportunities that will contribute to the transfer of expertise available to the Agency and its subsidiaries in order to expand the management of international projects, and to enter into partnerships with investors and international companies that have expertise that can be benefited from by transferring expertise to the projects of the affiliated companies locally.