Tanzania Finance Minister Khamis Omar and Multilateral Cooperation Center for Development Finance (MCDF) CEO Zhongjing Wang, together with their teams, discussed opportunities for strengthening cooperation to support sustainable, high-quality connectivity infrastructure development in Tanzania during a bilateral meeting at the MCDF Secretariat in Beijing on 16 December.
Minister Omar outlined priority infrastructure investments that Tanzania is advancing to deliver its national development vision and enhance regional integration. These priorities cover transport corridors, particularly railways, ports and logistics, energy, digital connectivity, and water resources. The aim is to promote trade competitiveness and inclusive growth in Tanzania and across East and Southern Africa.
Minister Omar highlighted the Government of Tanzania’s focus on expanding energy generation capacity, including plans to scale up installed capacity over the medium term, and underscored the importance of public-private partnerships, strong governance, and anticorruption measures for realizing complex infrastructure projects. He also emphasized the development of economic corridors as a catalyst for structural transformation and job creation.
The Minister expressed Tanzania’s interest in building institutional capacity for greater high-quality connectivity infrastructure investment, particularly in areas related to environmental, social, and governance practices, integrity, and skills development. He welcomed MCDF’s support for these goals through project preparation grants and knowledge-sharing activities aimed at fostering the application of International Financial Institution standards and good practices within priority connectivity investments.
CEO Wang noted that since commencing operations in 2021, MCDF has provided USD77.6 million in grants for 59 projects, which are expected to leverage USD12.7 billion in connectivity investment. He explained that Africa is a major beneficiary of this support, accounting for 43 percent of MCDF grants, and highlighted MCDF grant-supported activities in Tanzania being implemented by the African Development Bank. These include project preparation for the Lower Songwe Dam Hydropower project, Tanzania-Burundi Standard Gauge Phase II, and the Tanzania-Malawi 400 Kilovolt Power Interconnector.
CEO Wang added that MCDF’s 41 knowledge and information-sharing events have engaged 7,298 participants from 113 countries, including Tanzania, promoting capacity development across the continent and beyond.
CEO Wang said that MCDF is entering a new strategic phase, entailing the formulation of a new operational strategy, which is a core element of the upcoming replenishment exercise. He underscored that the replenishment is not primarily about financial contributions but focused on providing participating countries with an opportunity to help shape MCDF’s future direction and priorities to maximize the benefits of its support.
The discussion also covered potential areas for future Tanzania-MCDF collaboration, such as the development of economic corridor approaches, a more programmatic sequencing of large infrastructure investments, a planned MCDF Connectivity Infrastructure Report Series volume on Africa and other connectivity knowledge-sharing activities, and advancing digital infrastructure.
Minister Omar welcomed the opportunity for Tanzania to contribute to the formulation of MCDF’s new operational strategy and expressed interest in exploring deeper engagement with MCDF.
Contact
David Hendrickson
Senior Communications Officer
Mobile: +86 185 0114 6758
david.hendrickson@themcdf.org
