Transcript of Opening Remarks by President Tharman Shanmugaratnam at the Tanzania-Singapore Business and Investment Forum on 9 June 2026, the United Republic of Tanzania

Your Excellency Samia Suluhu Hassan, President of the United Republic of Tanzania,

Distinguished business leaders,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Good afternoon.

1. It is a pleasure to join you today for the Singapore-Tanzania Business and Investment Forum. Let me first thank my sister, President Samia Suluhu Hassan, and our Tanzanian hosts for their warm hospitality.

2. Singapore and Tanzania may appear distant on the map, but we have connections going back centuries. The monsoon winds carried trade, people, ideas and cultures between the Swahili coast and Asia, and made the Indian Ocean one of the world’s earliest arenas of long-distance exchange.

   1. Kilwa was among the great ports of the medieval Indian Ocean, and Zanzibar would later rise to prominence. Singapore’s own waters, too, have long sat at a meeting point – where the sea lanes of the Indian Ocean connect with those of the Pacific.

   2. Take the clove, the humble clove, the spice that made Zanzibar famous as the Spice Island. Cloves came from the islands of Southeast Asia, travelled west across the ocean, and took root in East African soil, where they flourished.

3. So, we meet today to renew a very old acquaintance – and to give it new relevance for our times.

4. We know the international order, especially the rules and norms of world trade, is not what it used to be. It is more uncertain, and that uncertainty is likely to endure. In such a world, the answer must be to diversify – to build new corridors of opportunity, and wider and more resilient supply chains.

5. Tanzania is a country of immense promise. And the turnout today reflects a genuine interest in Tanzania among Singapore businesses, and Tanzanian businesses interest in Singapore and Asia.

   1. You are a young and entrepreneurial population with abundant natural resources, expanding investment opportunities, including in infrastructure, and a strategic location that links regional and global markets.

   2. From sectors like agri-business to tourism, there is real potential for meaningful partnership – combining Tanzania’s own advantages with Singapore’s experience in building efficient systems, advanced supply chain management, high-value services and the digital economy.

6. If we can work this complementarity between our two economies well, it can create good jobs, higher capabilities, and inclusive growth.

7. Earlier today, President Samia Suluhu Hassan and I marked several new milestones in our relationship.

   1. We signed an Avoidance of Double Taxation Agreement, which will lower the cost and perceived risk of doing business, and will thereby give investors greater confidence.

   2. We signed an MOU on carbon credits collaboration, and we’re working towards a bilateral framework for Article 6 carbon credits transfers, while promoting sustainable development.

8. I also warmly welcome the East African Community (EAC)’s intention to pursue a Free Trade Agreement with Singapore, and the negotiations that we expect to commence soon. This would be Singapore’s first Free Trade Agreement with an African partner, and the EAC’s first with a non-African partner. It will open new pathways for trade and investment between East Africa and Southeast Asia.

9. So, to our businesses here today, I say: engage with open and adventurous minds, explore partnerships that add value on both sides, and turn possibility into mutual prosperity.

10. Thank you.