Exploring Tanzania’s Investment Competitiveness in East Africa

This research paper examines Tanzania's capacity to attract foreign investment, highlighting the shift from socialist governance to a model that relies on foreign capital for job creation and social upliftment. It identifies key competitive advantages and proposes structural reforms to improve the country's investment destination status.

• Tanzania possesses several foundational advantages for attracting foreign investment, including its political stability, its physical location, and its membership in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the East African Community. Additionally, the country maintains a highly liberal regulatory regime for foreign investment through bilateral investment treaties and domestic statutes.
• To maximize its potential as an investment destination, Tanzania must address structural challenges. Recommended actions include updating its bilateral investment treaty network, harmonizing investment regulatory instruments, and empowering the Tanzania Investment Centre. The paper also suggests facilitating the integration of small and medium enterprises into global and regional value chains via export processing zones and providing land title deeds to locals to enable them to raise finance for agricultural and agro-processing value chains.
• Due to a negligible domestic saving culture, Tanzania relies on foreign investment for capital formation, job creation, and general social upliftment. The state's role has shifted from being the dominant investor, as seen during the Ujaamanization era, to creating an environment conducive to foreign investment through regulation and human capital development.

APA

South African Institute of International Affairs (2017). Exploring Tanzania’s Investment Competitiveness in East Africa. https://saiia.org.za/research/exploring-tanzanias-investment-competitiveness-in-east-africa/

Chicago

South African Institute of International Affairs. Exploring Tanzania’s Investment Competitiveness in East Africa. 2017. https://saiia.org.za/research/exploring-tanzanias-investment-competitiveness-in-east-africa/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=South African Institute of International Affairs |title=Exploring Tanzania’s Investment Competitiveness in East Africa |date=30 August 2017 |url=https://saiia.org.za/research/exploring-tanzanias-investment-competitiveness-in-east-africa/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{southafricaninstituteofinternationalaffairs2017exploring, author = {{South African Institute of International Affairs}}, title = {{Exploring Tanzania’s Investment Competitiveness in East Africa}}, institution = {South African Institute of International Affairs}, year = {2017}, month = aug, url = {https://saiia.org.za/research/exploring-tanzanias-investment-competitiveness-in-east-africa/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }