THE government of Tanzania and Germany yesterday signed two bilateral grant agreements for bilateral development cooperation of about 147m euros (approximately 291bn/-).

Permanent Secretary in the the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, Ramadhani Khijjah, signed the agreement on behalf of Tanzania while the Ambassador of Germany to Tanzania, Guido Herz, signed on behalf of his government.

A joint statement by the two parties said the agreements cover a non-reimbursable assistance for the years 2009 – 2011.

According to the agreements, 117m euros (231.6bn/-) will go to three priority areas of cooperation namely water, health, and local governance. Some 44m euros will be allocated for the water development programme while the same amount will be provided to support the “Tanzanian German Programme to support Health”and to the Rehabilitation of Decentralized Health Infrastructure

According to the statement, 28m euros will support decentralization and local government while one million euros will be invested in a study and expert fund.

An additional 30m euros (54bn/-) are earmarked to go directly into the budget of the Tanzanian government through general budget support.

The bilateral development cooperation between Tanzania and Germany started way back in the 1960s. Over the last five decades, German bilateral cooperation with Tanzania has amounted to almost 1.6bn euros (2.88trn/-).