Dissertation (MA International Relations)This study is aimed to assess the role of Zanzibar Investment Promotion Authority (ZIPA) in attracting Foreign Direct Investment. A special attention was made to find what promotional activities ZIPA use and its effectiveness in attracting Foreign Direct investment, identifying incentives offered and its impact in the developments of Foreign Direct Investment, bureaucracy in service delivering and ZIPA influence on investment policy advocacy The research employed both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The methods used in data collection are questionnaire survey, interview and documentary review. Simple random sampling and purposive sampling were used as a part of sampling design for this study. The statistical package for social science (SPSS) and Microsoft excel were used for data analysis and management. The study reveals that, there are promotional activities that have not been employed by ZIPA and those which are in practice have not reached many potential investors. The study also found that ZIPA offers incentives to investors however, it is not satisfactory to attract potential investors and despite efforts done by ZIPA to reduce bureaucracy, still the menace of bureaucracy exists. On the other hand it was found that majority of investment stakeholders think land and tax policies need reform in order to keep conducive environment for investments. The study recommends ZIPA to increase budget for promotional activities, should offer more lucrative incentive packages and develop special incentive package for the sectors that have not attracted many investors. It should strengthen coordination among government‘s institutions that provide services to investors in order to reduce red tap bureaucracy.