East African Business Week (Kampala)
James Mwakisyala
7 July 2009
Dar Es Salaam — Tanzania's private sector invested US$ 21.173 million in five years, 2004-2008, creating direct employment of 400,145 people.
The Executive Director Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC), Emmanuel Ole-Naiko revealed this at the launch of the country's business linkages programme in Dar es Salaam last week.
Ole-Naiko said apart from generation of taxes, the private sector saw investments in construction of new hotels, beverage industries, open cast and underground mines, banks and telephony.
Presently, he said, Tanzania's private sector is characterized by a large number of small and medium enterprises which are basically informal, using sub-optimal technologies and accounting for over 50% of wage employment."
However, Ole-Naiko said the quality of products and services of the small enterprises needs to be improved by linking up with trans-national corporations (TNCs) to improve their productivity.
"We (TIC) tell SMEs that a successful indigenous entrepreneur is one who effectively utilizes the presence of foreign investors in Tanzania to build business networks and supply chain linkages. We tell them to stop complaining about foreign investors but, instead, utilize the presence of TNCs to build their own businesses," he said.
He urged Tanzania's SMEs to draw from the Ugandan experience and expertise whereby SMEs "have registered impressive growth in sales, market share and manpower."
The Business Linkages Programme was facilitated by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and Enterprise Uganda. Many other countries have followed that path including Mozambique, Zambia, Argentina and Brazil.
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