Africa-Press – Tanzania. MARKET expansion, supportive business environment and empowerment of small entrepreneurs are among the key objectives of the trade and industrial development ministry for the next fiscal year.
“The government through this budget targets improved business environment, exploration of more market opportunities for Zanzibar products and trade facilitation,” Trade and Industrial Development Minister Omar Said Shaaban said here yesterday.
Moving his portfolio’s 30.5bn/- budget estimates for the 2021/2022 financial year, Minister Omar told the House of Representatives that the government is determined to pursue an industrial-based economy for the social and economic prosperity of all islanders.
He said plans are underway to develop Dunga industrial park through surveying and development of its land-use plan as well as improve power, water and internal road infrastructure in the area.
The government is also conducting a feasibility study on Nungwi industrial park before payment of compensations to the affected wananchi.
The minister further pledged to increase control on the quality of imports and domestically produced products by strengthening the testing laboratories through the construction of a fully equipped Zanzibar Bureau of Standards (ZBS) office building.
The ministry also envisages enforcing the uses of electronic systems in the issuance of business licenses to simplify business in the country. Small producers especially women and youth will receive entrepreneurial training and credit facilities.
Through Zanzibar State Trading Corporation (ZSTC), the government plans to buy 7,000 and 1,200 tons of cloves and clove stalks, respectively, as well as boosting plant oil production through strengthening the processing industries in the country.
The Minister said the government will in the coming financial year use the prevailing world market price in the crop buying season, with producers receiving 80 per cent of the prevailing world prices.
Seaweed growers will receive 1,800/- and 700/- per kilogramme on Cottonii and Spinosum varieties, respectively, the minister announced.
He said during the current fiscal year, industrial production improved despite the fierce market competition due to imports.
The minister cited Azam Dairy Products Limited (ADPL) with an installed annual capacity of 64.8 million litres, which managed to produce only 3.6 million litres by last March.
The factory that employs 67 Zanzibaris has been operating under loss for two consecutive years. But, Mtoni-based Zanzibar Milling Corporation Limited (ZMCL), which deals with wheat flour, performed well, producing 62,300 tons of flour or 96 per cent of its 64,800 ton annual capacity by March 2021.
The factory has currently embarked on the expansion of its production and storage facilities, the minister said.
The House Committee on Agriculture, Trade and Tourism decried poor disbursement of development funds to the earmarked projects, saying under the current trend the objectives will be hardly achieved.
The Committee Chairperson, Mr Ali Suleiman Ameir referred to the envisaged Nungwi, Chamanangwe and Dunga industrial parks, saying nothing had been done due to the allocation of little funds.
“It has been common for us to rely on donor budgets in the execution of our development projects…this is not proper,” he said.
He further decried the high indebtedness of ZSTC due to high but unrealistic prices, which the government used to offer to clove growers, advising the government to intervene and rescue the country’s trading arm from the debts.
For almost a decade, clove producers had been receiving 14,000/- per kilogramme, irrespective of the prevailing world market prices.
