EDITORIAL: DIGITAL ECONOMY: WHY WE MUST BE OVERLY CAUTIOUS
As Tanzania is mulling over clambering aboard the digital economy bandwagon – which currently appears fashionable, attracting increasing support – we need to be most careful regarding how we can best go about it. Basically, a digital economy is one that results from billions of everyday online connections among people, businesses, devices, data and processes.
A digital economy’s backbone is hyper-connectivity resulting from growing interconnection of people, organisations and machines that results from the Internet, mobile technology and the Internet of Things.
It is this kind of economy which the Tanzania government has in mind – and which is taking shape globally so fast that it is bound to undermine conventional notions that have been with humanity for centuries about how businesses are structured, firms interact – and how consumers obtain services, information, goods, etc.
Yesterday, we reported that the government is “preparing to strengthen the country’s performance on the digital front by investing more in scaling-up the digital economy by providing a conducive environment for e-commerce”.
Fair enough, we say – especially in this day and age of digital transformation, whereby we are adopting ever-changing digital technologies to transform businesses, services and other developmental activities.
This is being done by replacing manual/non-digital processes with digital ones – and even by replacing outdated digital technologies with their upgraded ‘cousins’.
But, we also say that digital economy – also known as the ‘Internet Economy’, the ‘New Economy’, or the ‘Web Economy’ – is arguably the way to go today. This is especially for developing countries like Tanzania, which is still struggling to prepare a Digital Economy Blueprint to guide us on the new development path.
So, while we encourage the government to proceed with measures to adopt a digital economy, we also earnestly urge it to go about it with the greatest care, for a small technical mistake could ruin the economy, the county and its people overnight.
CURB HUNGER AMIDST PLENTY
Available statistics show that up to four out every 10 children in some parts of the country are stunted due to malnutrition. This is incomprehensible in a country that is abundantly endowed with fruits and vegetables. However, the crop often ends up rotting in areas with surplus production.
Because of transport problems, fruits and vegetables end up going to waste when they could easily change the lives of the needy and make our children healthier. Plants to process perishable farm produce also are not readily available. And so children living in areas with surplus fruits and vegetables are not spared from malnutrition.
Malnutrition occurs when people do not eat a balanced diet, and the most vulnerable are children under five. But pawpaw, oranges, bananas and pineapples, for instance, are rarely to be found on the tables of residents of, say, rice growing communities whose households also have access to plenty of the fruits.
It is time the authorities exercised leadership by introducing and enforcing nutritional interventions for the sake of the nation’s future.
