Align plans with govt, development partners urged
TANZANIA has urged development partners to align their efforts with the government to avoid duplication of efforts in the county’s development and priorities.
Minister for Finance and Planning, Dr Mwigulu Nchemba said on Tuesday that the joint efforts put in by development partners and the government will bring productivity to Tanzanians who are the biggest beneficiaries of all the programmes.
Minister Nchemba said this during the opening of a high-level strategic dialogue meeting yesterday in Dar es Salaam.
Dr Nchemba said a high-level strategic dialogue meeting between the government and development partners is held twice a year, with the aim of giving feedback on the measures taken by the government, which include reviews of the budget.
The minister said Tanzania’s economy is doing well and is heading in the right direction, saying that the country’s GDP grew by 5.2 per cent in the first three quarters of last year, portraying a strong performance of attaining the projection of 2022 based on the quarter four happenings.
He said the government’s achievements were due to various factors, including the amendment of some laws that have created a conducive environment of doing business.
Dr Nchemba further said that the government’s decision to provide subsidy of fuel and fertilizer as well as investing heavily in production sectors including agriculture is significantly paying off.
“The achievements include increased domestic resource mobilization from 17,944.9bn/- in 2017/18 to 24,395.7bn/- in 2021/2022, increased recognition, cooperation and participation of Civil Society Organizations (CSO) and private sector in development processes as evidenced by the establishment of different policies, including Public Private Partnership (PPP) policy as well as establishing the designated PPP Unit, which develops robust policies and regulatory frameworks to facilitate PPP projects,” he said.
Dr Nchemba said despite the achievements attained, there are challenges to be considered, including lack of transparency on some of the assistance channeled through NGOs, which undermines mutual and domestic accountability.
Furthermore, Dr Nchemba highlighted the importance of nurturing development cooperation, in particular during times of uncertainties, to jointly address development challenges, including climate change, business environment, energy, food security, blue economy and infrastructure development.
He said the government is committed to development cooperation as it continues to strive to attain goals set in the development vision.
On his part, the British High Commissioner to Tanzania and Development Partner’s Group Co-chair, Mr David Concar said Tanzania’s economy is recovering from Covid-19.
He said the two years of President Samia Suluhu Hassan have clearly shown that Tanzania has succeeded in renewing important regional and international relationships, while also making progress domestically on political reconciliation and reaffirming its reputation for economic and social stability.
Mr Concar said they recognise the efforts being made by Tanzania to complete major infrastructure projects.
“We also value the country’s continuing partnership with a wide range of UN agencies. We applaud the openness Tanzania has shown to harnessing fully its partnership with IFIs such as the IMF and World Bank,” said Mr Concar.
He added that this is exemplified by the IMF’s approval last year of a substantial 1 billion dollar + Extended Credit Facility to assist Tanzania’s economic recovery and reform agenda and more recently by the World Bank’s approval of a 500million US dollars IDA credit to support policy reforms, and 275million US dollars in credit and grant funding for maternal and child health investment.
Moreover, he said the aid is rightly provided to support Tanzania to meet its national development goals as set out in the country’s Third Five-Year Development Plan and Vision 2025, and in the context of Tanzania’s Development Cooperation Framework.
“To that end, the agenda we have agreed on is rightly ambitious in scope. It focuses on areas and objectives that are priorities for the government, which include women economic empowerment, transforming the rural economy through climate resilient agriculture and energy access as well as investing in the health and education of the predominantly young population,” he said.
In addition, he said critical to achieving all of those, is the goal of turning the country’s business environment and private sector into an engine of growth and job creation