World Bank (WB) country Director to Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, Mr Nathan Belete has hailed an initiative by the government to promote the private sector.
Should the country maintain the pace, the Bretton Wood institution is optimistic Tanzania’s economic growth rate will reach to 6 per cent from the current 4 per cent.
He said that it was evident that programs carried out in areas like building and strengthening energy generation projects, transporting it and storing it were promising further growth. Others are infrastructures and education improvement which he anticipated to catalyze economic growth.
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This comes a few days after President Dr Samia Suluhu Hassan’s efforts of inviting foreign investors, opening up borders and pioneering economic diplomacy with different nations, a move which has enabled the country to attract investors in different areas like mining, agriculture and tourism.
Mr Belete said that in his remark on monthly meetings of the CEO roundtable of Tanzania (CEOrt) which was discussing Tanzania’s Outlook: A World Bank Perspective.
He said that such an initiative which includes consideration of regulatory reforms, policy issues and hence, attracting more investment and trade which catalyses that private sector, an engine of growth.
“Tanzanian government is taking collective action to put in a friendly environment to ensure that it encourages more investments where most of the products are processed locally and hence, creates high-quality jobs for its people,” he said.
Mr Belete assured that the World Bank was ready to continue close relationships with Tanzania through technical and financial support in the areas which sharpen human capital needed to drive up the economy positively.
He said that recently, word bank has been dishing out soft loans to support primary, secondary and tertiary education, which are primary ones when it comes to producing educated human resources, and that it was well prepared to keep such support in the future.
Mr David Tarimo, CEOrt Chairperson in his side, said that in the monthly meetings members aimed at bringing on the table challenges for private growth and suggested best ways of moving forward to the government to address them.
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He highlighted some areas discussed including policy formulations, regulatory frameworks and tax regimes and established areas of improvement for attaining a robust economy driven by a strong private sector.
The World Bank Tanzania Economic Update (TEU) released last month forecasts that Tanzania’s economy will expand by 5.3 percent in 2023, which is way above Sub-Saharan Africa’s average growth of 3.6 per cent.
