At the center of burgeoning ties

By Li Lianxing | China Daily Africa | Updated: 2014-11-14 10:16

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Institute offers training for Tanzanians on how to conduct business or study in China

Charles A. Sanga, Tanzania's ambassador to Beijing from 2000 to 2006, says there's too much emphasis on China's leading role in the bilateral relationship and not enough attention on the East African country's own accomplishments.

"The reality is that a growing number of Tanzanians have been and are trying to be involved in these exchanges. They have established many contacts in all sectors with China," he says.

Sanga believes the Tanzania-China Promotion Center, established in 2012 in Dares Salaam, Tanzania's commercial capital, with an aim to ramp up cooperation between the two nations in politics, culture, education and economic development, will illuminate the overlooked efforts of Tanzanians, especially at the grassroots level.

"A developing country such as Tanzania must fully develop its brain to create the values for its own development and to catch up with the fast-changing world. Its students must receive the proper education to adapt to these changes," says Sanga, the center's CEO. "I think China is an ideal place to get all these."

He says Tanzanian businesspeople, however big their company, must tap into Chinese markets because of the wide range of Chinese commodities. He adds that, based on his experiences, scholars and students who have spent time in China came away pleased with the abundance of possibilities in the second-largest economy in the world.

"I found if you have a dream to succeed, then you should go to China to fulfill it," he says.

In an attempt to facilitate better trade relations, the center is currently offering comprehensive information and training for Tanzanians on how to conduct business or study in China.

"Apart from the TAZARA railway, we also want to make this center to be another signal of our friendship, to complement cooperation in many fields," Sanga says.

As China deepens its engagement with Tanzania, the center is making efforts to provide Chinese companies and investors with professional consultation on business and legal regulations in the African country.

Rong Yi, the center's director, says the center was initially a side project to help the Chinese embassy organize events, but it soon evolved into a non-governmental entity with a complementary role.

"During the past two years, we have organized many events and exchange activities with various partners in addition to providing our daily consultancy and language training services," he says.

Since 2012, the center has helped organize two exhibitions in Tanzania for Chinese universities.

"We brought 19 colleges from China to an education exhibition in Dar es Salaam in May 2012 and we again invited 28 Chinese universities to meet with Tanzanian students last year," he says.

To reciprocate the exchange of information from the Chinese universities, the center selected several works from renowned Tinga Tinga artists and sent them to China in 2012. Tinga Tinga is a style of painting formed in Dar es Salaam and named after Tanzanian painter Edward Said Tingatinga. The works were exhibited in North China's Tianjin Museum and later collected by the Chinese Ministry of Culture.

"This is a very special and impressive culture in Tanzania and the Chinese audience loved that. Many painting commissions were established after the exhibition," he says.

Still, Sanga admits, the Far East is a relatively new market to Tanzanians, so gaining more knowledge about the region's business culture and languages are the first keys to open doors. To that end, the center offers several courses in Mandarin and Chinese customs for Tanzanian clients to become more familiar with the nation.

Sanga says it's the first center in Tanzania to offer Mandarin courses to the public and hopes to tailor its services to attract more students and clients.

"We are constantly evaluating our courses to ensure that they are efficient, relevant and timely to ensure that students can travel to China with a solid foundation and return to Tanzania with the right skills and knowledge," he says.

"For those who want to go to China to look for business opportunities, we will provide them with a well-designed portfolio, including basic industry evaluations and information. For those who intend to send their goods back to Tanzania, we can collaborate with logistics companies to ensure their deliveries are secure and prompt."

The center has a partnership with the Confucius Institute at the University of Dodoma to offer Chinese language courses in Dar es Salaam.

"We have been receiving inquiries about doing business or studying in China, but found that few of the inquiring Tanzanians understand Mandarin, which would be a severe hindrance for them if they went to China. So for those who can't go to a university, we offer them a chance to take preliminary Chinese courses," Rong says.

Rong claims many Tanzanian students are shifting their attention from studying in Europe and the United States to China.

"Many students come to look into subjects related to medicine and computer science, two high priority subjects in Tanzania at the moment," he says. "We have matched many students to top Chinese universities, including Peking and Tsinghua universities."

Rehema Maarifa, a 22-year-old student at the Center for International Relations in Dar es Salaam, says the bilateral relationship is positive, but many younger Tanzanians have vague perceptions of China and of its languages and cultures.

She says she wants to be a diplomat and knows that understanding China is a prerequisite to accessing the changing global community and culture.

For Ibrahim Kayimba, a 34-year-old security guard, courses in Mandarin give him more career opportunities.

"I realized there are many Chinese doing business in Dar es Salaam, and I heard the salaries at Chinese companies are higher if you can speak Chinese, so I came to the Tanzania-China Promotion Center," he says.

lilianxing@chinadaily.com.cn