President Erdoğan to embark on three-country Africa tour

Erdinç Çelikkan - ANKARA

AP photo

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will later this month embark on a tour to three African countries - Tanzania, Mozambique and Madagascar - with a large business delegation, in a special focus on investment opportunities and potential business opportunities in seven sectors.

Erdoğan’s trip will begin on Jan. 22 and end on Jan. 26, with the main agenda item being the development of economic relations in three prominent countries in underground wealth, daily Hürriyet has learned from official sources. 

He will be accompanied by businesspeople from the Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEIK) as well as ministers. 

The accompanying business representative will reportedly seek opportunities to benefit from incentives in agriculture, tourism, banking and finance, construction, infrastructure, mining and energy.

In particular, the business delegates are expected to probe the $30 billion investment in liquidation facilities in Mozambique, which is expected to be the world’s leading liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter by 2022.


$30 billion investment opportunity

In a written statement issued by the DEIK to businessmen, it is stated that natural gas is expected to be extracted from the northern part of Mozambique, which will become one of the world’s leading exporters of LNG after the construction of liquidation facilities and terminals. The total investment value of these facilities is expected to be approximately around $30 billion dollars and to have gone into effect by 2020. 

In Tanzania, the accompanying businessmen during Erdoğan’s tour will meet with local authorities about major value-added investment opportunities and the processing of agricultural products such as coffee, cotton, tea, tobacco, cashew, corn, sugar, rice, pulses and wheat. Tanzania currently displays the best economic performance in Sub-Saharan Africa, with an average growth rate of 6.9 percent.

In Madagascar, the business representatives are expected to largely conduct meetings related to tourism investments.