Transcript of Doorstop Interview by President Tharman Shanmugaratnam in Zanzibar on 10 June 2026

Singapore Media: Since your State Visit is coming to a close, how successful do you think it has been? And how do you think Singapore will build on those successes moving forward?

And also, when you look at the trade ties between Singapore and Tanzania, and Singapore and East Africa, how can the hopes of a Free Trade Agreement help with those ties? And what areas do you think will be most consequential in?

President Tharman Shanmugaratnam: Well, first, it's been a very productive visit. I’ve had very good and candid discussions with President Samia Suluhu Hassan, as well as with Zanzibar President Hussein Ali Mwinyi.

Our discussions were focused not just on immediate opportunities, but on Tanzania and Zanzibar’s ambitions and plans for the future, and how Singapore can bring our strengths together with theirs.

There is natural complementarity between Singapore’s experience and expertise and their ambitions, and respect for each other. And meeting their ministers, sensing the energy and enthusiasm of their people, including their young, my sense is that Tanzania and East Africa will be a growing new frontier in Singapore's external partnerships.

Singaporeans do not understand Africa well enough, quite understandably, as it is not close geographically, and we haven't had the deep historical connections with African nations that we've had in Asia.

But it pays to understand Africa, and to understand first of all that it is a continent with very diverse regions, very different countries. Singapore is a small country, so we can’t be inserted everywhere in Africa, but we want to develop close partnerships in some regions and with countries on the continent. And East Africa and Tanzania are areas among those priorities.

If you think of East Africa today, the economies of the eight countries of the East African Community are about the same size as ASEAN was 35 years ago (in GDP). They are one of the fastest growing regions in the world, 5 to 6% per year.

And they are better governed than they used to be in most cases. To give you an example: I was talking to one of our companies. About 20 plus years ago, it took the company 14 months to get a licence to operate in Tanzania. Today, the approvals are as fast as any other investment-friendly destination.

And that's true for several other African countries. Governance has improved, and they are hungry for investments.

They are also diversifying their economies, which will help them remain stable. African nations had often inherited a narrow economic base from the colonial era - often just one or a few crops to export, and usually with very little local processing and local value-added. They didn't have much manufacturing. 

Now they are diversifying. If you look at Tanzania and Zanzibar, they are both diversifying. They are developing manufacturing; they are expanding their ports; they are also widening their offerings in tourism, such as with ecotourism. And they are going for sustainability.

There is a good complementarity in all of this with the strengths of Singapore firms. SBF (Singapore Business Federation) came with a good delegation, keen to find out more about Tanzania. Five years ago, they told me it would have been very difficult to pick up interest amongst their members to come to Tanzania. Now it’s easy. And others like PSA International, although they're not in this delegation, will be making their own visits.

The opportunities are of interest to our companies:

• In logistics, which is a core strength for Singapore. Here in Zanzibar, they have plans for a major new deep-water port, at Mangapwani, which at 18-20 metres is even deeper than Dar es Salaam. They hope it can be a transshipment port for the very large container carriers.

• They also plan for an industrial park to go with the port. That's a model our companies are very familiar with; they have expertise in industrial park design, developing manufacturing plants, and providing common services for manufacturers. One of the companies of the SBF delegation (NiveSal) has in fact been involved in developing manufacturing plants for firms in Africa.  

• Agribusiness, which is now being transformed to add more value through upstream and downstream activities, also presents opportunities. One of the companies in the SBF delegation, for example, is keen to market its organic fertilisers.

In the services too – tourism, which Tanzania and Zanzibar are expanding – and in fintech, and digitisation especially.  

Tanzania and East Africa can hence be valuable partners, as we diversify our links in a very uncertain world.  It’s a promising new frontier.  It will not be perfect. But there are no regions of the world that are perfect. The main thing is to sort out problems when they arise. And the trust that we build between businesses, as well as between government leaders, will be extremely helpful.

Singapore Media: You mentioned that it's now easier to persuade businesses to come here. That's why SBF’s here. Why is this so?

President Tharman: I think the businesses, too, sense that they need to diversify. Asia is still a hinterland for Singapore, but we need to diversify. It's a strategic necessity in today's world.

Start with the young. More of our young people should also get to know Africa and realise how exciting it is.

I enjoyed my time with the students at the University of Dar es Salaam yesterday. I was really impressed by them, even some first-year students, asking excellent questions, and by the way without referring to notes or their mobile phones. You sense their enthusiasm, and their aspiration, not just for themselves, but their country.

Singapore Media: Thank you.