What Tanzanians stand to gain in East Africa

April 25, 2012 (The Citizen Reporter) --  Dar es Salaam. Tanzanians stand to gain a great deal from integration in the East African Community—but only if they participate fully in the process and grab the opportunities available, stakeholders have said.
Speakers during the presentation of the State of East Africa 2012 report yesterday in Dar es Salaam said the belief that Tanzanians will lose in the integration process is wrong and only serves to stall the process. The report is compiled by the Society for international Development (SID).
With a larger natural resources base than the other countries in the region, the country’s economy could be a force to reckon with if reforms were undertaken to improve the business climate to take advantage of the available resources.
 “You can see how big investments from outside are helping to transform Tanzania’s economy,” said Mr Juma Mwapachu, former secretary general of the EAC. “Look at cement and mining companies, Coca-Cola, Pepsi and mobile phone firms whose large ownership is foreign.” 

The State of East Africa 2012: Deepening Integration, Intensifying Challenges compiles a wide range of economic, social, political, cultural and technological data and facts and makes comparisons among EAC member states which showcase the advantages and disadvantages of each member.
“The aim of the report is to inform, provide insight and spark imagination,” said Mr Aidan Eyakuze, the principal author of the report.
“It presents a wide range of information that is easily accessible to the region’s decision makers and ordinary citizens.” 
Participants further said Tanzania has every reason to make sure that its population stands to benefit in the integration and urged the leaders to be in the forefront to show their political will in addressing issues that still leave Tanzanians in doubt about integration. Mr Hamim Gulyama said Tanzania still has homework to do on issues such as capacity building for rural people and investing in education to create a more skilled population. “We still have issues with our investment in education,” he added. “I have a case whereby in one of the district there is Sh4 billion invested to boost education but performance in the national examinations was horrible.” 
Twaweza Director Rakesh Rajan concurred that the education system needs to be reviewed so it can impart skills to enable Tanzanians compete effectively in the event of integration.
He added: “Erecting school buildings should not deceive Tanzanians. I can assure you that the examination performance in the country is becoming poor. Only a few students manage to get division one and three, compared to some years back.” 
Mr Rajan advised SID to research the “State of Imagination” as this is the area that is driving Tanzania’s misconceptions about the integration.
Mr Mwapachu, who is also the President of East African Report, Society for International Development Tanzania Chapter, said the advantage of building an economy with a global perspective is that it will generate more employment and revenue for national development.
For this to happen, though, the government would have to be willing to educate the people on integration and Tanzanians themselves would have to take responsibility for understanding what it is all about.
Mr Eyakuze, who is the programme director of the SID regional office for East and Southern Africa, said Tanzania had an advantage in regional integration as the country is leading in infrastructure development. “For those who do not know, the truth is Tanzania is leading in terms of having good quality paved roads and attracting foreign direct investment in the region,” he said.
In 2008, East Africa’s total road network was 183,178 km, of which only nine per cent was paved.
Kenya had the longest paved network with 7,982 km, almost twice to that of Tanzania at 4,330 km. But Tanzania was leading on the quality of paved roads, with 70 per cent of its roads in good condition and only five per cent in poor condition. Only 47 per cent of Kenya’s paved roads were in good condition and 17 per cent of its road were in poor condition.
Tanzania and Uganda emerged as the countries attracting foreign direct investment.
In 2010, the EAC attracted an estimated $1.7 billion, with Tanzania’s FDI accounting for $700 million, behind $848 million for Uganda and Kenya receiving only $133 million.
The research found that Tanzania was in 2008 the main exporter of fish at 48 per cent, with $184.7 million—down from 57 per cent in 2000 and 2002 due to increased exports from Uganda and Kenya.
Uganda had a fish export share of 32 per cent with $120.1 million and Kenya’s fish exports stood at 20 per cent or $75 million.
According to the report, Tanzania still has to address some challenges in order to gain more from regional integration. Those issues include poverty alleviation, improving education and boosting health services to address malnutrition.