Repoa has proposed structural transformation in a number of areas for Tanzania to speed up sustainable and inclusive economic growth
Dar es Salaam. A research institute, Repoa, said Tanzania’s productive sector needs to be fine-tuned to boost the contribution of the manufacturing sector to the economy and job creation.
Repoa has identified three areas that need structural transformation for Tanzania to speed up sustainable and inclusive economic growth.
The contribution of the manufacturing sector to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has remained relatively small, at about eight percent, for almost 30 years.
This, Repoa says, was because two-thirds of the manufacturing sector was characterised by small and mostly informal firms or individuals with low productivity, low innovation, and limited growth sub-sectors.
Repoa wants structural transformation in a number of areas to speed up inclusive economic growth.
“Due to this, the production areas such as mining, industries, agriculture, and service delivery need to be restructured in order to speed up the sustainable and inclusive economy of the country,” the Repoa executive director, Dr Donald Mmari, said yesterday.
Dr Mmari was briefing journalists on the two-day 27th Annual Research Works that starts tomorrow (Wednesday, November 8, 2023).
Themed “Galvanising Sustainable and Inclusive Growth Through Structural Transformation”, the event is organised in partnership with the President’s Office (Planning and Investment), the Bank of Tanzania (BoT), and Gatsby Africa.
Dr Mmari said Tanzania needs to sharpen strategies for effective participation in the global value chains and options for strategic linkages to enhance transformational competitiveness in agriculture, industries, and other sectors.
“The global value chain will help speed up economic growth and be inclusive. Local producers of food products must be connected with large buyers and enable Tanzanians to increase production.
During the meeting, Repoa will launch its five-year Research Programme on Structural Transformation and Development Trajectory in Tanzania, where various researchers across the continent are expected to attend and share experiences of what the country can do to accelerate inclusive economic growth.
Repoa said Tanzania has to improve the status of its public-private partnerships to accelerate the economic transformation process.
“This year, we will involve researchers and development partners in discussing how Tanzania can speed up economic growth and build structure so that the growth involves more citizens and withstands the ongoing global challenges such as climate change and the global economic recession caused by the Russian and Ukraine wars, as well as Covid-19.”
Gatsby Africa country director, Mr Samweli Kilua, said: “We have decided to cooperate with Repoa in this meeting because the transformation of the economic system is the work that we do, so our participation is meaningful to us.”
He said there were countries that have succeeded through structural transformation and speeded up the economy.
During the meeting, various studies on the importance of private sector collaboration in speeding up the economy will be released.
