THE government has reaffirmed its commitment to continue creating conducive environment for growth of the private sector, which has proved potential to engineer economic growth and spur the country's development.

A Minister of State, Prime Minister's Office (Investment and Empowerment), Dr Mary Nagu reaffirmed the commitment while opening a workshop on Public Private Partnership (PPP) awareness Day in Dar es Salaam.

"Strengthening the private sector in the country is one of our priorities... we appreciate the huge contribution of the sector since the government ceased to participate actively in business," she said, adding that through the Big Result Now initiative, the government will work with the private sector to achieve big results.

The minister challenged the private sector to participate in the execution of projects in priority areas of agriculture, water, infrastructure, education and health. "The government has taken various measures towards creating enabling environment for the private sector to prosper.

Efficient implementation of the public-private partnerships constitutes one of the avenues for achieving our development goals," Dr Nagu said. According to the minister, PPPs have been identified as viable means of engaging the private sector in the provision of public goods and services to people.

Executive Director of Tanzania Private Sector Foundation (TPSF) Godfrey Simbeye said the private sector in the country will continue working hard to achieve the Big Result Now objectives.

"We commend the government for decision to come up with the PPP policy... this will help achieve meaningful progress if implemented as required," he said, adding that every person should work hard in realising meaningful development.

The PPP Act came as a result of the PPP policy of 2009. One year later, Act No 18 was enacted and established PPP Units which are Coordination Unit at Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC) and Finance Unit at the Ministry of Finance.