ARUSHA, Tanzania, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Tanzanian government on Tuesday commended Chinese investors for a decision to build a giant cement manufacturing plant in the northeastern coastal city of Tanga.
The proposed plant is expected to be the giant in east and central Africa.
"The Chinese investors' move is recommendable as it meant to meet country's cement demand as well as making the products is available at a relative low price," said Tanzanian Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa.
He made the remarks when he met with representatives of Sinoma and Hengya Cement (T) Ltd, Tanga Regional Commissioner, Martin Shigella and officials from the Tanzania Investment Center (TIC).
The proposed cement plant, which will be built along the Indian Ocean coastline in Tanga, will provide lots of opportunities as it's in line with the Uganda-Tanga crude oil pipeline construction.
According to Majaliwa, construction of cement plant will act as a catalyst to Tanzania's industrialization plan as well as speeding up country's socioeconomic development.
President of Sinoma Company Peng Jianxin said that the investment will be implemented in two phases, whereby in the first phase about 1 billion U.S. dollars will be spent.
He said that soon after production of cement, 70 percent of the product will be exported and 30 percent will be for local market.
"We'll be using the Indian Ocean to export the produced cement to Somalia, Kenya and Mozambique. We're also planning to export it to Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda," the Chinese investor said.
The proposed plant is expected to start in May and construction of their own wharf will start during the same period so that the produced cement can be transported directly from the factory.
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