Zanzibar’s fisheries minister has said he’ll be keen to welcome investment by Chinese fishing companies in his island. That’s according to a Chinese report on the visit by the minister, Rashid Ali Juma, to Zhoushan, China’s leading fishing port for the country’s long distance fishing vessels.
During his trip, Rashid met executives from the tuna-focused Tai Ping Rong Fishing Co. as well as the Zhejiang Xing Ye Group. He also met with Dai Deng Lu, head of the city’s Ocean & Fisheries Bureau.
The delegation from Zanzibar – which is a self-ruling archipelago in the Indian Ocean under the ultimate rule of Tanzania, a long-time political ally of China – also visited the site of the Zhoushan National Long Distance Fishing Industry Park and met Chen Jian, a government official overseeing its construction, before also visiting the Dai Shan He Tai shipbuilding yard where some of China’s international trawlers are built.
The new industry park will see Zhoushan expand its facilities for processing and trading the catch from international waters, including squid and tuna, according to a local government outline of the project.
Last year, the leading Chinese fisheries official led a delegation of Chinese fishing companies to the Indian Ocean island of Zanzibar with promises of “increased cooperation” in fisheries. Zhang Xian Liang, who runs the fisheries management bureau at the Chinese agricultural ministry, met Zanibar ministers of agriculture, fisheries and natural resources. In 2017 China’s commerce ministry funded a fisheries training program for Zanzibar officials delivered by the Fujian Institute of Oceanography.
