| UNLEASH DOMESTIC PRODUCTION AND SEE HOW TANZANIA GROWS! | Send to a friend |
| Wednesday, 22 February 2012 21:48 |
 Tanzania is endowed with abundant natural resources and trade opportunities. If they were put to good use, these assets could make the country an economic powerhouse to reckon with. With thousands of miles of coastline and three major lakes along its borders, the country could also be a major gateway to the international trade routes.But the country and its people remain poor. The government depends on foreign aid to fund the national budget. About a third of Tanzanians live on less than $1 a day. The infrastructure is in a sorry state and social services are poor. Experts say the country has failed to benefit from natural resources for national development and poverty reduction because the people do not have an enterprising spirit.They then resort to subsistence activities to survive. College graduates wait for foreign investors to venture into the exploitation of the natural resources and create jobs for them. But poor rainfall and the changing nature of global production threaten to erase subsistence economy. Millions of hectares of fertile land are being taken away by big agricultural firms, leaving smallholder farmers landless.This has to change. Tanzanians must learn to establish and run businesses. Everyone, including the government, has a role to play in this. We cannot be a nation that waits for foreigners to snap up the opportunities that are available and, at the end of the day, start complaining that foreigners are stealing our wealth. We must encourage foreign investments. But foreigners could be wary of a country that has no significant domestic investments. How is it that the US and China are the world’s receivers of foreign direct investments? Is it not because these countries have sizeable domestic production going on? We must play our part. We must trust one another. This is the time for the government to put in place policies and strategies that make lending to locals by commercial banks less risky. We need strategies that make it possible to start and run businesses without needing to get past corrupt government officials. This is the time for the government to fix power and water problems once and for all and to make it cheaper to do business in Tanzania. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites           |
Latest News
Most Read
Gallery