Angela Normino
President Samia Suluhu Hassan has affirmed the government’s commitment to enhancing diplomatic ties and collaborations with other nations around the world as well as organizations.
The VP insisted that the government is fully committed to addressing the challenge, including setting a target of creating seven million job opportunities by next year.
He said that several strategies to realize the target have been taken including ensuring micro-economy stability as the bedrock for employment creation and building resilient and economic buffers to support the private sector.
“Unemployment is still a global challenge, the government is committed to address the challenge through various initiatives that have so far been Speaking at the annual Diplomatic Sherry Party hosted at the State House in Dar es Salaam, Dr Samia expressed optimism for fruitful engagements and achievements in both bilateral and multilateral endeavors throughout 2024.
“It is my sincere hope that 2024 will have more enriching encounters and success in our endeavours on both bilateral and multilateral basis,” she noted.
Highlighting the achievement recorded in the past year, she said the country’s inflation rate has remained low at 3.9 per cent and close to the medium-term target of 5 per cent. The GDP growth rate reached 5.2 per cent last year, up from 4.7 per cent in 2022.
President Samia said the national debt continues to be sustainable, with a debt-toGDP ratio currently standing at 36.6 per cent below the threshold of 50 per cent.
“Encouragingly, we got more signals of confidence in our future economic situation up to December 2023,” she said.
She further said Tanzania registered 526 new large investment projects in total worth over 5.6 billion US dollars, a 58 per cent increase from the preceding year signalling sustained confidence in Tanzania’s growth trade trajectory.
In addition, she said more credit rating agencies gave Tanzania a favourable credit score in 2023.
“We pledge to ensure the existing investments are protected and secured. We are continuing with our industrialisation journey and we have experienced a rise in key economic sectors,” she said.
President Samia further said the leading sectors include agriculture, of which its productivity continues to grow with the food selfsufficiency ratio, standing at 124 per cent. In mining, she said the country recorded 6.43 per cent increase in mineral production.
The Head of State said Tanzania has witnessed notable growth in the tourism sector, with receipts rising from 3.33 billion US dollars in 2023 up from 2.33 billion US dollars in 2022 and industrial productivity grew by 4.2 per cent.
Dr Samia further said last year, the government continued its drive to ensure connectivity and connectedness between its people and regions through the construction of roads, bridges, railways and ferries.
On the energy sector, she said the government expects the historic launch of its flagship project, the Julius Nyerere Hydropower Project (JNHPP) between now and March this year. Another major reform during the period she said was the enactment of legislation on Universal Health Insurance (UHI).
“We are aware that this is going to be an uphill task, but we find it to be a just cause. We aspire to reform the sector and ensure universal health coverage to our population,” She said the government continues with institutional capacity building and improving capabilities of the personnel to ensure access to affordable health care for all in line with World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines and recommendations.
Earlier, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation, Mr January Makamba while giving his welcoming remarks to the members of the diplomatic corp said Tanzania will continue adhering to international protocols and conventions guiding the bilateral and multilateral relations.
He commended President Dr Samia for upholding multilateralism, which has seen Tanzania signing a total of 78 Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) last year alone, targeting key development areas.
On his part Dean of the Diplomatic Corp, Mr Ahamada El Badaoui Mohamed who doubles as the Ambassador of Union of Comoros said his office has been enabling ambassadors in Tanzania to exchange views, experience and information thus easing implementation of various diplomatic activities for deepened cooperation among them.
Addional Source:Daily News
