The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
Costantine Sebastian
27 August 2008
The quality of education provided in the country is by regional and international standards poor and a detriment to competitiveness of the national economy, the World Economic Forum has said.
An expert at the Geneva-based organization said last week that the poor health of most Tanzanians is another major disadvantage in global competitiveness rankings. Expert Jennifer Blake said the poor health of the population also diminishes the country's growth prospects.
"These are areas requiring urgent attention to improve Tanzania's competitiveness, particularly given its present stage of economic development," she affirmed in an interview to be published next week. Commenting on the country's competitive demerits, she said that the most striking areas of concern relate to human resources.
Enrolment rates in education remain low particularly in secondary and university education and the quality of the educational system gets poor marks, the expert noted.
Tanzania is ranked 104th out of 131 countries in the latest Global Competitiveness Report. WEF says that the poor performance demonstrates that it should be doing much more to improve its productivity and growth potential.
The economy's competitive advantages include well functioning government institutions, particularly by regional standards whereby its ranked 62nd globally. Others are government policymaking, which is seen as being quite transparent, government regulation that is not overly burdensome, and a relatively high level of trust in the political class.
"In addition, labor markets are quite efficient and flexible. The capacity for innovation is also very good by regional standards in Tanzania, with relatively high spending on research and development, and some university-industry research collaboration taking place, for example,"Ms Blake said.
Other competitive shortfalls are infrastructure, which remains quite underdeveloped, including transport infrastructure, telephone lines and electricity. In addition, the country is not harnessing new technologies for productivity improvements when considered that it is ranked 99th on the technological readiness pillar, she added.
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