It would take many years for Tanzania’s economy to make tangible advances if the leadership continues on the path of talks, dialogue and paper work rather than concrete actions to implement plans that already exist.

(Picha na Hans Badi)

Prof Do Duc Dinh from Vietnam and Prof Li Xiaoyun from China(The academics) said on the 17th Annual conference Research on povert Alleviation (Repoa).Prof Do, who is head of developing economies studies at the Vietnamese Institute of World Economy, told participants that his country’s strategy had been to lay emphasis on changing from a subsistence economy to a commodity-oriented one. Although Vietnam does not have enough opportunities to produce agricultural products, he added, they had managed

to establish highly efficient cashew nut processing plants.

“At one time, you had 13 cashew nut processing plants but now you do not have one which is operational,” Prof Do said. “You have raw materials but you do not have factories.”
“Throughout 20 years, Tanzania has not reached meaningful transformation, also The economy has recently grown at seven per cent but there has been no transformation of the agriculture. There is no significant change.” he said.
He further noted: “Your food prices are so high. I visited your country three years ago when the price of rice was Sh1,200 a kilogramme, but now it is Sh2,500. It is not possible to reduce labour costs in this.

President Kikwete conceded that poverty still haunts the majority of Tanzanians despite the fact that the economy is growing at seven per cent. In the meantime, the mining and mobile phones sectors are growing at more than 20 per cent.
“Despite the high growth rate, the rate of poverty reduction in Tanzania has not been as fast. Statistics indicate, for example, that from 2001-2007—the period when our economy was growing at very high rates by world standards—overall household poverty fell by a marginal rate of only two percent, from 35.7 percent to 33.6 per cent.” He said

The country had implemented programmes for increasing economic growth and reducing poverty, such as Mkukuta and Vision 2025, which aim at turning Tanzania into a middle income country by increasing per capita income from the current $540 to $3,000 in 2025,President said.

But there are challenges in transforming agriculture, the informal sector and small and medium-sized enterprises that have unaccounted wealth as people working in those sectors do not pay taxes.

The executive secretary of the planning commission, Dr Philip Mpango, said Tanzania should emulate oriental countries such as China, Vietnam and Malaysia and build visionary leadership.   situation.”