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| Mr Kikwete |
Tanzania’s economic policies came under criticism yesterday, with two
foreign professors saying they were more of rhetoric than actions.
The academics—Prof Do Duc Dinh from Vietnam and Prof Li Xiaoyun from
China—said it would take many years for Tanzania’s economy to make tangible
advances if the leadership continues on the path of talks, dialogue and paper
work rather than concrete actions to implement plans that already exist.
They were speaking on the first day of the 17th Research on Poverty
Alleviation (Repoa) annual conference in the presence of President Jakaya
Kikwete.
The two dons told the audience that the national leadership had spent
too much time talking and it was time they translated strategies into concrete
actions to reduce poverty.
They are in Dar es Salaam as guests of an NGO think tank, which is
holding its two-day annual workshop. This year’s theme is “Socio-economic
transformation for reducing poverty”.
Prof Do, who is head of developing economies studies at the Vietnamese
Institute of World Economy, told participants that his country’s strategy had
been to lay emphasis on changing from a subsistence economy to a
commodity-oriented one.
Although Vietnam does not have enough opportunities to produce
agricultural products, he added, they had managed to establish highly efficient
cashew nut processing plants.
All of Tanzania’s cashew nut factories have collapsed, leaving farmers
who produce the crop with nowhere to turn.
“At one time, you had 13 cashew nut processing plants but now you do not
have one which is operational,” Prof Do said. “You have raw materials but you
do not have factories.”
Prof Li, the dean of the college of humanities and development at China
Agricultural College in Beijing, said Tanzania has yet to translate its
policies and promises of transforming agricultural sector into actions for
taming poverty.
“Throughout 20 years, Tanzania has not reached meaningful
transformation,” he said. “The economy has recently grown at seven per cent but
there has been no transformation of the agriculture. There is no significant
change.”
The Chinese academician added that sectors such as telecommunications
and mining have grown very fast but are not linked with agriculture, which is
the sector that employs most people.
There are disparities even within agriculture, where wheat farming is
growing at nine per cent while the main food crop, maize, grows at four per
cent. Cassava grows at a paltry two per cent.
It was not possible to reduce poverty while agriculture fails to feed
Tanzanians at a low cost, he warned.
He further noted: “Your food prices are so high. I visited your country
three years ago when the price of rice was 1,200/- a kilogramme, but now it is 2,500/-.
It is not possible to reduce labour costs in this situation.”
In his keynote address, President Kikwete conceded that poverty still
haunts the majority of Tanzanians despite the fact that the economy is growing
at seven per cent. In the meantime, the mining and mobile phones sectors are
growing at more than 20 per cent.
The President added: “Despite the high growth rate, the rate of poverty
reduction in Tanzania has not been as fast.
Statistics indicate, for example, that from 2001-2007—the period when
our economy was growing at very high rates by world standards—overall household
poverty fell by a marginal rate of only two percent, from 35.7 percent to 33.6
per cent.”
Source: The Citizen,www.dailynews.co.tz, reported by Ludger Kasumuni
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