THE private sector is determined to help the government to create more jobs through investment in agriculture, the Chairman of the CEOs' Roundtable, Mr Ali Mufuruki, has said.

Speaking at the CEOs roundtable in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday night, Mr Mufuriki, however, said that no progress would be made if the government would not solve or address some obstacles. He pointed out that continued invasion of land offered to investors by citizens was likely to scare them away. "I believed that there is lot of opportunities for job creation in agriculture.

We are trying to help the government through policy proposals to create jobs in this sector," Mr Mufuruki said. Unfortunately, he pointed out, the government has not been making good progress in expanding employment in agriculture because of number of factors. "The policies that would have been able to open up or would have allowed us to open up investments and subsequently employment in agriculture are obsolete and cumbersome," he said.

According to him, investors were being offered slow access to land and people were invading land when they know an investor has been assigned or allocated. He said insecurity was being created in areas where investors have been given land without a lot of support from the government. "These are issues that the government needs to address quickly. Otherwise, these investors are going to leave and invest elsewhere and we are going to be denied an opportunity to attract investment and create a big number of jobs for Tanzanians," he said.

He said the majority of Tanzanians are young people, most of them have education, some don't, but even those who have education are unemployed and are in the streets. "This is the cause for concern to all of us and I am sure also for the government," he explained.