Africa-Press – Tanzania. FORMER British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, has hailed President Samia Suluhu Hassan for her efforts to bring development in the country.
Mr Blair, who is the Executive Chairman of Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, assured President Samia of a continued cooperation on im- plementing the development agenda.
The ex-UK Premier made the statement when he paid a courtesy call on President Samia at the Chamwino State House in Dodoma on Wednesday, calling for proper monitoring of implementation of the development projects.
“In order to achieve targets in all the projects, it is a must to have accurate data that will be used in monitoring progress that have been attained,” said Mr Blair in part of a media release issued by the Directorate of the Presidential Communications on Wednesday.
For her part, President Samia thanked Mr Blair for the visit that also aimed at making a follow-up on the project being executed in Tanzania.
She assured of her government’s determination to keep implementing all development priorities for the sake of upgrading the living standard and welfare of every Tanzanian.
The two leaders had previ- ously met in July this year in Dar es Salaam, when President Samia reaffirmed her government’s commitment to establish local vaccine manufacturing factories.
“In handling the Covid-19 pandemic, the government has devised its own National Deployment and Vaccination Plan (NDVP) for Covid-19 vaccine, including the vaccine coordination mechanism,” said President Samia.
She noted that in building domestic capacity, the govern- ment is planning to set up industries for the manufacturing of different vaccines, and asked Blair’s Institute to sup- port the initiatives.
The Head of State also told Mr Blair about her government’s measures to im- prove Tanzania’s investment climate for the private sector in order to facilitate the implementation of the Third National Five-Year Development Plan (FYDP III).
President Samia welcomed Blair’s institution to come to Tanzania and partner with various institutions in executing priorities set by the government.
She commended Mr Blair’s institution for supervising the execution of various development projects in various partner countries.
Mr Blair informed President Samia that over the past one year and a half his institute had been dealing with managing the Covid-19 situ- ation in 16 African countries.
The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change has been working to support the implementation of the priorities of the 16 African countries including containing the Covid-19 pandemic.
In containing the Covid-19 pandemic, Mr Blair pointed out that his institution is focused on rapid testing and the deployment of vaccines.
He said based on their work, the institute could easily link Tanzania to the global Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers.
Blair’s institute also deals with building the capacity of partner countries in the areas of agriculture, energy and technology.
With the Covid-19 pandemic persistently wreaking havoc across the globe, millions dying and health systems overwhelmed, countries are scrambling for approved vaccines, whose availability remains limited.
Tanzania sees the manufacturing of its own vaccines for various diseases as the best way of maintaining a healthy nation amid regular epidemics.
Early this month, the Permanent Secretary in the Min- istry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Prof Abel Makubi noted that plans were ongoing to establish a local factory to produce different vaccines, including possible Covid-19 vaccines.
According to Prof Makubi the construction of the factory will cost the government over 80bn/-.
