DAR ES SALAAM, September 12, 2014 — Tanzania urgently needs to transform its economy to create more productive jobs for its fast growing population, according to a new World Bank report released today.
The new Country Economic Memorandum ‘Productive Jobs Wanted’, which was prepared by the World Bank in collaboration with the President’s Office Planning Commission, outlines three ‘ways’ to accelerate the creation of decent jobs for Tanzania’s labor force –which is forecast to grow from 20 to 40 million between 2012 and 2030.
“Today the aspirations of many young people of earning a decent living and having a better life are not being met,” says Philippe Dongier, the World Bank Country Director for Tanzania, Uganda and Burundi. “The large majority of young people still end up involved in subsistence farming or low productivity small business, with odds stacked against any future progress. There is an urgent need for private investment, domestic and foreign, to radically accelerate in order to grow competitive industries that create productive jobs.”
To address this challenge, the report proposes three measures: enabling development of small non-farm businesses; increasing farm productivity, and accelerating the growth of export markets and export-oriented industries. The first measure looks at job creation from the angle of small non-farm businesses, which have been growing very fast during the rapid urbanization. The second focuses on farms because those still capture the largest share of employment in Tanzania, while the third measure explores the job-creation potential associated with business expansion into new markets, regional and global.
“The challenge of productive employment cannot realistically be met without major reforms. The magnitude of the changes needed to encourage the creation of productive jobs requires a comprehensive action plan,” says the report’s author, Jacques Morisset, the World Bank’s Lead Economist for Tanzania, Uganda and Burundi.
The Country Economic Memorandum which proposes 12 key actions based on international best practices and Tanzania’s recent experience was prepared after a thorough review of international experience and consultations with Government, academics and private sector within and outside Tanzania.
