A forum intended to showcase business and investment opportunities in Arusha city and its environs will be held in March.
The two-day event is the brainchild of the East African Business Council (EABC) and the regional secretariat.
"We are targeting 400 to 500 delegates from across the East African region", said John Bosco Kalisa, EABC executive director.
He said the forum will be jointly organized by the apex body of private sector association in collaboration with the regional authorities.
The proposed event, slated for mid March,will be themed' 'Come and Invest in Arusha and Tanzania in general'.
However, Mr. Kalisa said the focus will be on Arusha being the gateway to East Africa and the hub of tourism, a key economic sector for the region.
"Arusha has a lot of opportunities for investments. We are eager to showcase this", he explained in an interview.
The city which is also the headquarters of the East African Community (EAC), has a conducive environment for business growth, including connectivity to many places.
He added that his organization was keen on the forum because the body's primary mission was to promote private sector led growth.
As expected the meeting will discuss how to eliminate or reduce the barriers that continue to haunt to haunt cross border trade in the region
"EABC vision is a borderless East Africa", he pointed out, noting that suggestions would be made on how to scrapp some of the notorious barriers.
Arusha regional commissioner John Mongela said he was optimistic about the forum and that a joint committee will be formed soon to prepare it.
He said Arusha needs investors to restore its image as a leading business hub following the devastating impact of Covid-19 pandemic in 2020/21.
"Arusha also has a comparative advantage because it has many opportunities for investments and trade", he said after consultations with EABC officials.
Investment opportunities for Arusha have for years rotated in tourism, horticulture,service sector, manufacturing, shopping malls and real estate.
This will be the third investment forum involving the Arusha-based EABC to be hosted here in the past three years.
The latest one took place in August last year and discussed the recovery plans from Covid-19, specifically for the tourism sector. It attracted business leaders from the EA region.
The other - a High Level Business and Investment Summit -took place in November 2019 was organized to enable the region to attract more investments from across the world.
The resolutions and recommendations were forwarded to the EAC Heads of State for consideration.
The business summit urged the region to double the intra EAC trade from the 12 percent then to -24 percent by 2024.
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