Photo taken on May 12, 2006, shows the interior of the new Tanzanian parliament building in Dodoma. It took the contractor, China Railway Jianchang Engineering Company, 18 months to complete the construction of the building. (Xinhua Photo/Yi Gaochao)

DAR ES SALAAM, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Tanzanian Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa said Thursday that 2,069 government officials have so far moved to the East African's new political capital Dodoma from the commercial one Dar es Salaam.

Addressing the National Assembly in Dodoma, Majaliwa said the officials who have moved to the new capital by the end of the first phase in February include ministers, permanent secretaries, head of departments and other senior officials.

Last year, Tanzanian President John Magufuli announced that he will ensure that his government moved to the centrally located capital of Dodoma before the end of his first five-year term in 2020.

Already Prime Minister Majaliwa has shifted to the new capital with a good number of ministries.

In 1973, the Tanzanian government announced that the capital would be moved from Dar es Salaam to a more central location to better serve the needs of the people.

In the same year, the government under the leadership of founding President Julius Nyerere, decided to shift its capital city from Dar es Salaam to Dodoma, when it was envisaged that the move would take 10 years, and that the cost could be justified when set against a long-term perspective.

But four decades later the move could not be implemented on various reasons, including poor infrastructure and economic difficulties.