TANZANIA’S ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PLANS IN TUNE WITH BOTH GLOBAL AGENDA 2030 AND AFRICA’ DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORK 2063.

Tanzania Embassy, Addis Ababa Ethiopia

Wednesday, 6 April,2016.

Tanzania’s Second Development Plan soon to be tabled in parliament is in tune with both a global development Agenda 2030 and Africa’s 2063 development agenda aimed at lifting millions of Tanzanians out of poverty by adopting the frameworks for qualitative transition towards a new transformative and people-centered development trajectory that combines economic, social and environmental aspects.

The Deputy Minister for Finance Dr. Ashatu Kijaji said this during a press briefing responding to the question on how Tanzania was going to implement the two complementary development strategies in an integrated and coherent approach to achieve an accelerated, inclusive and sustainable economic growth.

“ Tanzania’s Second development plan to be tabled soon focuses on national industrialization for development of people, hence emphasis on small and medium scale industries that would concentrate on processing raw commodities to add value and fetch lucrative prices in the regional and global market generally”, she said.

The Deputy Minister said Tanzania’s Economy was among few the best performing in the continent whereby between 2015 and 2016 the growth was 7.3 Percent and that most parts of the country are well connected with good roads with an exceptional of few areas.

On the Question of reliable energy that  is vital for industrialization Dr.Kijaji said the implementation of Kinyerezi I and Kinyerezi II power projects would ensure reliable power supply that would enable small scale, medium and large scale industries to produce efficiently creating significant employment opportunities to Tanzanians.

 Dr.Kijaji said the Second National Development plan also aims at formalizing informal sector that currently employ majority of Tanzanians the move that would also enable the government to expand tax base, improve GDP and increase the government’s ability to provide quality social services including education and health in tune with both agenda 2030 and 2063.

On war against Corruption which is one of the major hindrance to development initiatives not only in Tanzania but Africa in general, the Deputy Minister said the current Tanzanian government under President Dr. John Magufuli is waging a serious war against corruption and those abuse public offices restoring public’s hope that they would have a better life.

Commenting on some multi-national Companies operating unethically in African countries, corrupting public officials and collude to steal millions of dollars from poor countries, the Minister said among the resolutions reached at the end of their conference was to build local capacity to audit and monitor the conducts of these companies to ensure that Africa gets its fare share in various joint economic undertakings. 

In their Resolution at the end of their wee long conference that was also coined as “African Development Week,”

African Ministers for Finance and Planning called upon the United Nations to continue its support for Africa’s transformative agenda by aligning itself with, and supporting the priorities of the African Union, in particular Africa’s aspirations for a continental free trade agreement, regional integration and trade, industrialization and the related goals of Agenda 2063, including the programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa, the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program, the Science, Technology and innovation Strategy for Africa and the Action plan  for Accelerated Industrial Development in Africa.

The Weeklong conference availed African Finance and Planning ministers with an opportunity to dscuss issues of harmonization ,synergy, monitoring and evaluation of  Agenda 2063 and Agenda 2030 to ensure Africa was moving forward with one development framework so as not to subject policy makers in various African countries to multiple development frameworks.

During the Conference a number of reports were launched including “The Economic Report on Africa, which this year has a theme of Green Industrialization,” an issue very pertinent to the continent.