and commodity prices seemed to set Tanzania with its offshore gas discoveries on a sure path to rapid growth. It is now in a state of limbo.

The project was announced in early 2013 after a visit to Tanzania by Chinese President Xi Jinping, during the presidency of Jakaya Kikwete.

Conceived as a pressure valve for the port of Dar es Salaam, where the volume of cargo handled had jumped by 20% in the previous seven months alone, the scheme was to have delivered an ultra-modern 800ha port, together with rail and road links and a 1,700ha industrial park. The first phase consisted of a 1km quay with two 300m long, 15m deep container berths.

With support from Hong Kong conglomerate China Merchant Holdings (CMHI) and the Sultanate of Oman, workbegan in October 2015 and the first phase was to have been complete in 2017.

But confusion descended when the scheme was abruptly suspended in January 2016 by the new president, John Magufuli, who campaigned on a promise to cut waste and corruption. And then the cancellation was itself cancelled by the Ministry of Transport, which announced that ground would be broken in July that year. But in July it was announced by Grace Lemunge, investment promotion manager of the newly formed Bagamoyo Export Processing Zone Authority, that work had been delayed by the need to compensate land owners, only one third of whom had been dealt with. She said, however, that a task force comprising government ministers and CMHI had been convened to get the project moving ahead.

China