Africa-Press – Tanzania. TANZANIA Investment Centre (TIC) must attract more investors for the country to realise her economic targets, including creation of eight million new jobs by 2025, the Minister of State in the President’s Office (Investment), Prof Kitila Mkumbo has said.
Prof Mkumbo made the remarks during his meeting with TIC management and officials in Dar es Salaam.
The meeting was meant to shed light on the government’s direction in the coming five years as contained in President John Magufuli’s speech when he inaugurated the 12th Parliament last month.
Prof Mkumbo picked out two main issues from the President’s speech for the TIC to focus on during the next five years for it to contribute more to the country’s economic prosperity.
In his 41-page speech, from 9th to 41st page the Head of State spoke about the country’s economic prospects and specific goals.
First, the President wants to see the annual economic growth rate reach 8 per cent in the next five years.
As he embarks in his second five-year presidential term, Dr Magufuli also wants to see the economy, in both informal and formal sectors create over 8 million jobs.
“These are the main economic goals contained in his speech… and he has directed that the only means to realise these targets is to attract more local and foreign investors,” the minister told the TIC officials.
He stressed that investment is one of the main factors for boosting the economy, and that in today’s global competition it is basically in the area of attracting investors.
Thus, a country that manages to attract investors puts itself at a better chance to grow economically, he asserted.
Prof Mkumbo recalled that the current global economic giants are the US and China, and both nations have managed to attract many investors.
“Even in Africa, the nations with strong economies are those which have successfully attracted investors,” he said.
Prof Mkumbo said fortunately Tanzania is endowed with natural environments for luring investors, one being the geographical position since it is surrounded by 8 landlocked countries that depend on Tanzania for imports and exports through ports.
On the other hand, manmade environments include political stability, good policy, legal framework and stable economy coupled with improved transport infrastructures.
Prof Mkumbo tasked the TIC to solve issues of nepotism and unnecessary delays when an investor wants to invest in Tanzania.
He reiterated President Magufuli’s call on government institutions responsible for investment facilitation to take not more than 14 days in enabling an investor to invest in Tanzania.
“We need to change our mindset. Officials working with investment facilitation institutions should not see themselves as bosses to investors, we should look at them as partners and your duty is to facilitate,” he said.
He directed the TIC to strengthen coordination and relationship with other institutions working for facilitating investments, including regulatory bodies, such as the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA), to ensure there is a good business environment.
On the other hand, Prof Mkumbo told the TIC to prepare an Investment Information and baseline data which would provide a national picture on the number of investments created during a particular period, types of investments and jobs created, among other things.
“You must prioritise this, we need to get baseline data and before March next year, this is a very important tool for us to measure ourselves and would enable me to give a report in the Parliament or to the President over the number of investors, their types and capitals invested,” he explained.
