The Vice President orders companies to invest on processing factories.

The Vice President of the United Republic of Tanzania Hon. Dr. Philip Mpango has called on companies and industries in this country to invest more in increasing the production of packaging materials to help its easy availability and reduce the costs incurred by entrepreneurs to import from abroad.

The Vice President made the call on July 31, 2023 during the inauguration ceremony of the Vegetable, Fruit and Spice Processing Factory (Mbeya Food Park) located in Iyela ward in Mbeya City. He has also instructed the Ministry of Industry and Trade in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance to find a way to set a friendly tax in the production of packaging materials to facilitate its availability in the country.

In addition, he advised financial institutions, including banks, to design friendly loan services and specific windows that will enable entrepreneurs to borrow at low interest rates to develop their businesses.

The Vice President has said that the Sixth Phase Government in collaboration with agricultural stakeholders will continue to solve the challenges in the sector in order to enable farmers and entrepreneurs to benefit from agriculture in this country. He has asked farmers to increase the production of vegetables and fruits in order to enable the factory to work at its full potential as well as meet the needs of these products in various markets around the world.

Also, the Vice President has called on researchers and research colleges, as well as other institutions, to invest in conducting research to find out the various crops derived from vegetable products produced in the southern highlands. He has also urged innovators, researchers and technology institutions to invest in designing machinery for processing crops and manufacturing packaging materials.

The Vice President urged to fasten the construction of storage rooms for vegetables and fruits (cold room) to enable the produce to be transported directly from Mbeya region using a cargo plane recently bought by the government.

The construction of the Vegetables, Fruits and Spices Processing Plant (Mbeya Food Park) along with its machines has cost 1.7 billion shillings. This was made possible through the KIBOWAVI project funded by the European Union (EU) under the AGRI-CONNECT Program.

In another step, the Vice President has launched a branch of the College of Business (CBE) in Mbeya region located in Iganzo ward in Mbeya.

Speaking immediately after launching the branch of the college, the Vice President has asked the teachers and trainers of the college to manage the trainings provided to ensure that it enables young people to do sustainable business practically anywhere. He said that business is one of the most important activities in the nation but for many years it has been facing the business as usual habits.

He has given the remarks to the students who will get trainings in the college to make good use of that opportunity by not getting involved in other things as opposed to the investments that are being made with the aim of helping them become smart businessmen in the nation.

This post is produced with the financial support from the European Union through AGRI-CONNECT Programme. Its contents do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.

This article is republished from VPO website. Read original article