THE Minister of Foreign Aaffirs and East Africa Cooperation, Mahmoud Thabit Kombo, has said that m any Italian companies have promised to come and invest factories in Tanzania to save the cost of transporting their products to this country.

Meanwhile, Kombo said that the trade between Tanzania and Italy continues to grow and there are many opportunities for Tanzanians to send many agricultural products including avocados.

He said this yesterday in Dar es Salaam during a Tanzania-Italy Business Investment Forum, between the businessmen of the two countries to build a business network.

"Many Italian companies have promised to come  to build factories to make various products because if they build factories here, they will save transportation costs, which will reduce the price of their products, so they will be competitive in the market," he said and added.

"Italian companies sell a lot of products here in the country and we Tanzanians should increase our selling volume in their markets because our avocados currently reach China and India market, so we should target the Italian market to also send products such as fish, octopus, meat, oranges, cashews," he said.

He said Tanzanians should use the opportunity of such meetings to meet with their fellow Italian traders to exchange contacts and information that will help them do business together.

"A business forum like this is very important for Tanzanian traders to get permission to enter the country easily because when you are at the meeting like this you will find a partner who will be your host in Italy," he said and added.

He said that within the ongoing forum, 52 companies from Italy can enter into joint ventures with Tanzanians.

The Director of International Trade and Economic Diplomacy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, John Ulanga said that Italy is doing great business with Tanzania.

He said the objectives of such a forum is  to challenge Tanzanian traders to sell more products to Italy and increase partnerships between local investors and their Italian counterparts.

He said Italian investors have invested heavily in the tourism sector by building many hotels on the mainland and on the islands of Zanzibar.

"A forum like this is an opportunity for us to sell to Italy and bring new capital from that country, we are currently selling to Italy a lot of agricultural products such as fruits, leather, the challenge we face in the European market is to meet the requirements of product quality and quantity," he said.

"When we attract investment, it's not that they only bring products, they also bring expertise and a network of how to reach their country's markets and in order to develop partnerships, we must get to know each other, that's why a forum like this is very important," he said.