Gold exports have continued to play a
significant role in the country’s foreign earnings because of price
appreciation of the precious metal in the world market.
The value of gold exports, according to
the Bank of Tanzania’s (BoT) monthly economic review for June this year,
increased by 30.4 per cent to 2,330.7 million US dollars (3.72tri/-)
largely because of about 22 per cent rise in the world market to 1,671
US dollars (over 2,670/-) per troy ounce.
“The volume of gold exports also went up
to 38.4 tonnes from 37.4 tonnes recorded during the year ending June
2011,” noted the report.
Commenting on the Bank report Dr Dothath Olomi,
the chairman of the Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship
Development, said, however, there was great need to enhance export based
agriculture products to enable the nation gets sustainable foreign
earnings.
“Although gold contributions to
country’s exports are enormous, the benefits accrued were still minimal
due to the nature of the investments and contracts signed,” he observed,
cautioning over the signing other contracts, especially on the gas
sector, to ensure win-win situation.
He urged stakeholders led by the
government to increase investments in agro-based products to fill the
supply constraints gap and harness potential benefits emerging from the
neighbouring countries like Burundi, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of
Congo (DRC), Kenya and Uganda.
Some of the commodities to the
neighbouring countries are cement, textile apparels, edible oil, plastic
items, iron and steel products, wheat flour and paper goods.
In the BoT
report, the value of export of goods and services in the period under
review was 7,990.2 million US dollars (12.78tri/-) compared to 7,050.7
million US dollars (11.28tri/-) recorded during the year ending June
2011.
The improvement was largely on account
of increase in gold exports and travel receipts. Traditional exports
amounted to 761.1 million US dollars (1.22tri/-), which is 9.2 per cent
higher than the level exported in the corresponding period in 2011.
The development was mainly attributable
to an increase in both export volumes and prices of cotton, tea, cloves
and cashew nuts. Exports value of tobacco declined by 5.9 per cent to
271.9 million US dollars (435.04bn/-) mainly due to decrease in the
world market prices.
The value of non-traditional exports was
4,108 million US dollars (6.57tri/-), compared to 3,560.5 million US
dollars (5.69tri/-) recorded during the year ending June 2011 dominated
by gold and manufactured goods.
Source: The Daily News,http://dailynews.co.tz, reported by Sebastian Mrindoko
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