Mhe. Membe (katikati) na Mwenyekiti wa CCM, DMV, Bw. George Sebo (kulia) walipofika kumpongeza kwa niaba ya Rais Kikwete mara baada ya kupokea Tuzo.
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KEY NOTE ADDRESS BY
HONORABLE BERNARD KAMILLIUS MEMBE, (MP) MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND
INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION OF TANZANIA ON THE OCCASION OF RECEIVING THE AFRICA
POLITICAL LEADER OF THE YEAR AWARD ON BEHALF OF HIS EXCELLENCY JAKAYA MRISHO
KIKWETE, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA
WASHINGTON, DC
09-04-2014
______________________________________________
Dr.
Ken Giami, Chief Executive Officer of the African Leadership Magazine,
Hon.
Saada Mkuya Salum, Minister for Finance of the United Republic of Tanzania
Her
Excellency Liberata Mulamula, Ambassador of the United Republic of Tanzania
Senior
Government Officials,
Members
of the Diplomatic Corps,
Members
of the Public Service Sector,
Editors
of the African Leadership Magazine,
Distinguished
guests and friends of Africa
Ladies
and Gentleman:
I commend the Chief Executive Officer Dr. Ken
Giami and his entire team for convening this Award ceremony and for organizing
it so well to everybody’s satisfaction.
I also thank the organizers for inviting me to participate and deliver a
key note address on the theme “Efficient Public Service delivery as key to
Africa’s Economic Growth and Development”
I will try to limit myself with Tanzania’s example as you suggested,
however you will bear with me when I speak for Africa as we stand as one.
The proposed subject is indeed an important matter
to all of us especially at this juncture when countries such as Tanzania are at
the verge of economic transformation.
Throughout my remarks, I will put an
emphasis on people’s centered development and economic growth.
Ladies and Gentlemen;
It is with no doubt, efficient public service
delivery in Tanzania has brought significant progress in the overall well-being
of its citizens. However, the experience
has shown that the master key to sustainable Economic Growth and Development is
the partnership which the public sector must, of necessity forge with the
Private Sector. This is why we in
Tanzania have for number of years embraced the notion of public private
partnerships (PPP). This has been
working across all sectors that play a big role in the development of
Tanzania. The combination of the two
propels economic growth and development forward. In Tanzania for example we have achieved a
target on universal primary education enrolment as well as on gender parity
with regard to number of boys and girls in primary and secondary school
enrolment. We are now working to create
gender parity of female-male in tertiary education.
Since education is carried out by both public
and private sector, we in the government made a decision that student loans should
not only be accessible to public school students, but also to all private
school students. This public service
delivery in education coupled with the partnership with the private sector in
education, has made a huge difference.
Since we are in the ICT era, I must also mention
that new schools in Tanzania have triggered an explosion in the demand for
secondary school education. A 400 percent
increase in enrolment in only four years has taxed the educational
infrastructure. The schools cannot cope
with the numbers of new students, and the country now needs 85,000 more
teachers. As a result, the Tanzania
government has launched a powerful public-private partnership scheme called “Tanzania Beyond Tomorrow”. International technology brands and important
not-for-profit organisations are taking part in the scheme exploiting e-Learning
to expand the capacity of the secondary schools. Trials are taking place in Mbezi Beach, an
up-market suburb of Dar-es-Salaam. Our
goal is to roll out this project nationwide through national fibre-optic
network.
Ladies and Gentlemen;
On environmental
sustainability, we are doing very well on providing safe and clean water in rural
and urban areas. A total of 2,390,000
villagers have been provided with clean water during the past one year. Previously, the number of people provided
with water in rural areas was at between 300,000 to 500,000 people annually. An important factor in this development has
been the success in increasing
efficiency in the procurement process, reducing the time required to procure a
contractor from an average of 295 days to 95 days only in implementation of
water projects.
We have also made significant achievement in the
provision of health facilities in the country.
In the past five years, we have been building more dispensaries and
health centers with the aim of ensuring that there is a health delivery facility
within a radius of 5 kilometers from where people live. We are also training Doctors, Nurses and Mid-wives
so that pregnant women can now deliver under the care of trained health
personnel in a move to improve maternal health. New two medical colleges of
medicine have been built in Tanzania for the purpose of increasing the number
of Doctors and Nurses. The two schools
at Mloganzira in Kisarawe and Dodoma have the capacity to produce approximately
15,000 medical students annually in various fields.
Ladies and Gentlemen;
Another area that has consumed
most of our time and resources in the past few years, is the area of
infrastructure development. Road and
railway infrastructure is key to economic growth and trade facilitation in the
country and in the continent at large.
The Government has during the 2013/14 fiscal year increased spending in
infrastructure to 2.16 trillion Tanzanian shillings compared to 1.94 trillion
Tanzanian shillings in the previous financial year. Tanzania has built close to 4,000 kms of road
network in the last 8 years. This
development facilitates trade, shortens the number of travelling days and motor
vehicles would now live longer. There
are port development projects which are capital and labour intensive which are
as well underway.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Recent Gas discoveries are leading the
way in Tanzania’s economic transformation.
Tanzania’s gas discoveries todate are at 46 trillion cubic feet and more
are expected. We do have other renewable
resources that are largely untapped; these are hydro, solar, wind and
biomass. Our renewable industry is
understandably at its infancy because of lack of finance providers, service
companies and a regulatory framework. I
seize this opportunity to welcome those interested to invest in this area.
Our Government knows that if we are to
achieve our goal we must have the ease of doing business. Transparency in managing these resources is
what we have resolved to do. We believe
that transparency will enable the business environment to develop and
thrive. Without transparency, we will
have weak governance, corruption and poor oversight. Whereas better governance and transparency
drives up standards, engages communities and creates a level playing field that
will benefit all companies.
That is why I said from the beginning
that public service delivery and partnership with private sector is
imperative. Partnership is about
improving the business environment, and Tanzania remains committed to working
with our partners and help each other in implementing more transparent, whether
on open data, tax or trade policies, or on land and extractive transactions.
Agriculture is the mainstay of
Tanzania’s livelihood. Close to 80% of
our people live and depend on agriculture.
The Government is determined to transform our agriculture into
mechanized and commercial agriculture.
The discovery of gas will put in place fertilizer industries which will
create and improve productivity.
Agriculture will continue to create more jobs to the millions of
unemployed youth. Should be known, Tanzania,
has 44 million hectares of arable land and up to now only 6.3 hectares (24%)
are under crop production. 34 percent of
our export earnings come from agriculture.
CONCLUSION
So yes! Efficient public service
delivery is key to economic growth and development. Tanzania’s growth levels have reached and
sustained at 7%. Export of goods and
services in the country, in the East African market and European countries is
tripling.
Partnership with private sector and
other countries is a master key. Not
only does partnership provide resources, but it enables partners to help each
other creating conducive climate for trade and investment with good governance
and transparency being its top priorities.
That is what Tanzania has been trying to do and will die trying!
As I finish, I hope to see you in Tanzania, if
not for investment opportunities that we can offer then for leisure as a
tourist. Let me also take this
opportunity once again to thank you for selecting His Excellency Jakaya Mrisho
Kikwete as a winner for this year and this award is dedicated to Tanzania and
Africa at large. We have work to do in
improving the lives of our people, let’s do it.
Our gratitude to Africa Leadership Magazine you are doing a wonderful
job of speaking for Africa by Africans.
You remain a good example of what young people in Africa can do in the
world, best wishes in keeping the African dream alive.
Thanks
for your very kind attention!
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