Plans are being finalised to build a $250m conference centre in Arusha, a city in northern Tanzania with a population of about 400,000. When completed, it will be the largest such centre in east Africa.Â
The client for the work is the Arusha International Conference Centre (AICC), a for-profit company owned by the government of Tanzania. Elishilia Kaaya, the managing director of AICC, said: "It’s going to be a government-driven investment, aimed at reinforcing Arusha’s position as hub of conference tourism in east Africa."Â
The centre is to be called the Mount Kilimanjaro International Convention Centre, and is located about 50km south-west of Africa’s highest mountain.Â
The centre will contain a plenary hall surrounded by smaller exhibition spaces. The hall will have a seating capacity of 2,500, but it will be possible to reconfigure it to contain up to 10,000 delegates. The facility will also house restaurants, a hotel and a shopping mall. Â
Arusha already contains a conference centre. This building was constructed in the 1970s as a headquarters for the short-lived East African Community intergovernmental body. It was converted to its present use in 1977.Â
