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At the invitation of the CPAFFC, a Tanzanian local government delegation led by Mizengo Kayanza Peter Pinda, minister of state in the Prime Ministers Office in charge of Regional Administration and Local Government, paid a visit to Beijing and Shandong from October 7 to 13, 2007.

In Beijing, CPAFFC President Chen Haosu and Vice President Feng Zuoku met with the delegation. The two sides had an in-depth discussion on the cooperation between friendship cities of the two countries. The delegation paid an official call on the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development where they were informed about Chinas policy-making on poverty alleviation, allocation of funds for poverty relief and experience in personnel training. The delegation visited the Beijing Dongcheng District Administrative Management Service Centre and had talks with the researchers of the Beijing International Institute of Urban Development.

Shi Lijun, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the Shandong Provincial Peoples Congress, and Lin Huayong, vice mayor of Taian met with the delegation separately.The delegation had talks with the Shandong Provincial Bureau of Personnel, and visited the Qilu Software Park, the Yuqing Water Plant under the Jinan Water Supply Group, the Water Supply Service Hotline, the Taian Central Hospital and the Taian High-tech Industrial Development Zone.

Except Minister of State Pinda, all the other members of the delegation visited China for the first time. Their knowledge about China was limited to the Tanzania-China traditional friendship such as Chinas aid to Tanzania, etc. and knew little about Chinas present basic national conditions. Through the visit, they got some knowledge about Chinas political system, economic policy, experience and achievements in development. Through visiting government departments, factories and enterprises, they learned Chinas experience in poverty alleviation, administrative examination and approval, urban planning, civil servant training, urban construction, medical care, introduction of outside investment, etc. Minister of State Pinda said that some of the experience learned from the visit could be directly applied in Tanzania. For example,in Tanzania the government departments do not provide “one-stop” service; units or individuals have to wait for a long time to get the official written reply to their applications, reducing the government departments administrative efficiency and likely to breed corruption. If Tanzania sets up a “one stop” service platform like the Beijing Dongcheng District Administrative Management Service Centre and put service of all the departments in one place, the efficiency of the government will be greatly raised and fairness and transparency of the government administration can be guaranteed.

The visit to the Beijing International Institute of Urban Development left a deep impression on the members of the delegation. In the Institute there is a multi-media dynamic database of Chinas public decisions, which by collecting, editing and analyzing the information released by various Chinese media provides a channel for the governments at various levels to know about the problems that the ordinary people are most concerned about as well as for the ordinary people to learn the decisions made by the governments at various levels. Minister of State Pinda said, Tanzania needs very much to establish such an institute to study the major problems in urban development.

So far, between China and Tanzania there is only one pair of friendship cities i.e. Haikou and Zanzibar. Minister of State Pinda spoke highly of the important role played by the CPAFFC in promoting exchanges between Chinese and foreign cities, and also pointed out that the friendship-city work between Tanzania and China lagged behind andthat the exchanges between the local governments could boost bilateral ties. CPAFFC President Chen Haosu said, exchanges between friendship cities have played an important role in the relations between the two countries. The CPAFFC will actively promote the cooperation between the friendship cities of China and Tanzania and expect more friendship cities will be established between the two countries.