President Dr John Magufuli addresses the business community members at the State House.
IT’S time up for the local private sector to complain against lack of government support to become productive and control the economy as President John Magufuli dared them to cease the opportunity now.
“No government in the world does not support its private sector to be competitive,” President Magufuli declared as he dared Tanzania Private Sector Foundation (TPSF) Chairman, Reginald Mengi and his peers to roll up their sleeves and take charge of the economy at a State House meeting yesterday.
“To genuine business people, I am your friend and anyone in my jurisdiction who frustrates your efforts to invest, create jobs and make profit, has no place in my government,” Dr Magufuli said the State House conference hall in Dar es Salaam, the country’s business elite went wild in applause.
“Enough is enough, it has been a long time that people have taken us for a ride, the world is laughing at us, we have enough resources but we import even tooth picks,” the head of state charged as he challenged the local private sector to move into commercial fish trawling and processing at high seas, shoe and furniture manufacturing, mining and even oil and gas extraction.
He warned his administration to desist from frustrating private investment and demanding bribes, Dr Magufuli whose speech was punctuated by applause, laughter and cheering, said an era of business as usual is long gone and that his government will work with the private sector to create jobs and pay taxes for economic growth.
“Political campaigning is over, elections are over, you need the government and I need you, let’s get back to work and serve this country,” the President argued, saying that those who discourage local investors from venturing into any sector including oil and gas are mistaken.
He wondered why the country has over 1,000 kilometres of Indian Ocean coastline with no single fish processing factory, over 20 million herds of cattle but still importing shoes and all species of hardwood and plantations but importing furniture from abroad.
“But even worse is that while tanzanite is only mined in Tanzania, India is the largest producer while Kenya is the second largest, we have nothing. I want our private sector to venture into this area,” Dr Magufuli whose masterly in statistics kept the country’s business elite, clapping and laughing almost entirely, challenged.
The TPSF Chairman, Dr Reginald Mengi pledged the private sector’s commitment to work with the fifth phase government, saying there are a number of hurdles which need to be undone if progress is to be made.
“We have a myriad of taxes, bureaucracy in public offices which result into rampant corruption,” Dr Mengi said while expressing hope that Dr Magufuli’s 26 days at State House had shown some progress against all major evils frustrating the growth.
The TPSF chief who is also Executive Chairman of IPP Group of companies commended the head of state for giving the private sector priority to meet them and exchange views on how best to work together.
“As you rightly said during your address to the Parliament, your government’s primary goal is to improve the lives of majority of Tanzanians through job creation and growth, we invest and create jobs but the environment is not encouraging,” Dr Mengi noted.
Referring to annual World Bank Doing Business Report (DBR), the TPSF Chairman pointed out that the country had dropped a step down this year because of the harsh reality of hurdles encountered by business people when seeking projects approval in public offices. Tanzania slid to position 140 this year from 139 last year in the DBR.
“One major problem is corruption which if not addressed squarely will continue to frustrate growth and deny government more revenue from private investments,” the IPP Group Executive Chairman charged.
In a vote of thanks, TPSF’s Vice Chairman, Salum Shamte said finally, the country has a man at State House who is willing to encourage the spirit of ‘best produce and buy Tanzanian.’
“We have enough resources to meet local demand in edible oil, sugar, rice, beef and almost everything but the problem is a usurped domestic market,” charged Shamte who is also Managing Director of Tanga based Katani Limited.
He said if the domestic market could be regulated properly so that cheap imports don’t compete unfairly with tax paid local edible oil, rice or sugar. Tanzanians will soon stop buying foreign products locally.
The meeting was also attended by Chief Secretary Ombeni Sefue, CEO Roundtable Chairman, Ali Mufuruki, Agriculture Council of Tanzania (ACT) Chairman, Dr Sinare Yusufu, Confederation of Tanzania Industries (CTI) Chairman, Dr Simon Nyantahe among many other business and elite members.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN