Speech by His Excellency Nabil Hajlaoui, French Ambassador to Tanzania, at the opening of the Aga Khan Polyclinic in Zanzibar

Madam First Lady, Madam Mwinyi,

Princess Zahra,

Dear Minister,

Dear Principal Secretary,

Dear friends of Aga Khan,

We are happy to be here in Zanzibar today for this event.

Last year we were together with dear Princess Zahra for another inauguration which shows how deep our partnership is in health here in Tanzania.

This is not the first time I’ve come to Zanzibar – I always love coming to Zanzibar, but this is the first time I come and take part to an event in such an amazing building, with the First Lady, a Princess, a Minister, and even my personal doctor who is here, so thank you for this amazing event.

Just to tell you how we are, as French, part of this project. France is committed to health worldwide, to make it very very crucial in its support to development in the world. We talk now about the concept of ‘One Health’, which means that we cannot enjoy good health in France and Europe and the West in general, and not provide the same level of service to other partners – Tanzanians and sub-Saharan Africans in general are among them, and we are keen to do all our best to be part of this kind of project either by bringing expertise or by funding when we can. And it is a modest contribution from our side to the welfare and to the good life that Tanzanians and Zanzibaris have to enjoy as long as other countries.

Here in Tanzania we are happy to have a Government, President Samia Suluhu Hassan, in Zanzibar President Mwinyi that share this vision. They want to provide good services to the population. President Samia Suluhu Hassan and President Mwinyi in all our meetings and all our discussions insist on education, health, and other services to the population.

We want to be your support to make this happen, and it is being more and more fulfilled and implemented on the ground through this project, through other projects. We have 24, our medical facilities that we work on, that we support with you, with the Aga Khan Network here in Tanzania.

We are proud to be, as French, as Tanzanian friends, part of something that will improve Tanzanian lives.

Congratulations really for this wonderful place, this wonderful facility. I would end by one figure that I saw in the documents. The figure is 150,000 patients that should be treated in this facility – 150,000 patients. Which means 150,000 persons who will be cured from a disease, 150,000 families that should receive good care, and see beloved ones and families be in a better shape.

For this, I can tell you that it is not only priceless, but it is really worth doing all the jobs that you are doing and AFD, our development agency, is doing along with you. Congratulations for this and thank you – and happy to be part of this partnership.

Thank you.