President Jakaya Kikwete in an exclusive interview with Eric Tirabassi of TanzaniaInvest
TanzaniaInvest had the pleasure to conduct an exclusive interview with H.E. Dr. Jakaya Kikwete, President of the United Republic of Tanzania. In the interview TanzaniaInvest and President Kikwete discuss the current state of the economy and the government forecasts for the coming years, the investment opportunities available, the upcoming oil & gas industry and the government commitment to reach the country’s 2025 vision to take Tanzanians out of poverty and become a Middle Income Country.
TanzaniaInvest: Tanzania is a brilliant example of a developing country experiencing sustained economic growth, with GDP growth consistently averaging 7% for the last ten years. How do you explain these impressive macroeconomic performances? Will such strong growth continue?
Jakaya Kikwete: When you look at the Tanzanian economy, having been in situations where at some point we had negative growth and difficulties, certainly the strong macroeconomic performances we witness now are a function of the implementation of economic reforms and sound economic policies that were introduced in the second half of the 1990’s, aimed at bringing our macroeconomic indicators back on track.
However I believe we should be able to do much more. 7% GDP growth is not adequate at our level of development meaning our level of poverty. Being a Least Developed Country (LDC) we want to move people out of poverty and for that we need a higher growth rate.
We were almost there and then the global economic crunch hit us in 2009 when our GDP growth rate went down to 6%, although expectation were 5%, which is proof of the level or resilience that the Tanzanian economy has reached.
We expect a GDP growth rate of 7.2% this year [2014] and if everything goes well we will reach 8-10% in the medium term.
We expect a GDP growth rate of 7.2% this year [2014] and if everything goes well we will reach 8-10% in the medium term.
TI: Within this growth vision, which roles are Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) expected to play?
JK: FDIs have a critical role because where there is no investment there is no growth. That’s why we are very keen on receiving constant inflows on investments, both international and local.
As a poor country obviously there is not much investment available locally therefore we look at attracting more FDIs and we have been successful in doing so. In 2005 we received USD 150 million worth of FDIs while in 2013 we received USD 1.7 billion.
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