Benjamin Mkapa Special Economic Zone (BWM- SEZ)
Emmanuel D Tayari
Poverty is today the most pressing problem for the Tanzanians. There is sharp disagreements on which is the best way we should follow to fight poverty, between either people who believe in Socialism and people who believe in Capitalism. At the end of the day these differences do not eliminate the broad consensus of substance which stands out; because everyone agrees that, at this point in time, the success or failure of the political regimes in our country , whatever their ideological or political affiliations must be measured above all by their ability to defeat poverty.
Looking at issues of poverty, a universally accepted doctrine is that, development is the harmonious interplay of two major variables. One is the distribution, whose role is to ensure that the productive resources with which a nation has, come to all its inhabitants. No development process would be viable if, once created the resources, they remain concentrated in favour of privileged minorities. That is why it is very wrong for Members of the Parliament to receive more than Tsh 10 Million per month while the rest of the hard working people are receiving less than Tsh 200,000 per month. These are actions which create a situation where, the sum of a country\’s economic production are limited to one sector benefits or few people and this only ends up to social injustice which results in marginalizing the rest of the fruits of development.
Moreover, while talking about the distribution of the national cake, we should also emphasize that the amount of productive resources, even well-distributed, might be insufficient to ultimately provide enough resources compared to the pressing needs of our nation. The central problem of underdeveloped countries brings us to the second major variable to the universally accepted doctrine for issues of poverty and development, which is the accumulation of new wealth. Our country should fight to increase investments. Although most of the opposition parties, speak a great deal of wealth distribution, it is about time they start to unveil their plans for increasing investment opportunities in the country.
Our Main goal as a country should be to look on the ways we can attract more investments; because the problem is no longer just \”distribute\” but also \”create\”. This is a very gigantic task that needs both public and private partnership; because without this cooperation, our national cake will not be big enough to spread across various social sectors.
In moving forward, this week, we have witnessed the inaugural of Benjamin William Mkapa Special Economic Zone (BWM-SEZ) in Dar es Salaam, which I believe is the best way to promote and empower wealth creation and hence attract more investments.
In acknowledging that, I keep emphasising that we cannot solve our entire problem just by distributing better. The bias of \”distribution\” has characterized Tanzania for so long, and that the emphasis of most politicians has since been insisting on the absolute priority of their policy and not investment. This generation, we are ready now and we should realize that we are not a rich country but a poor country and one hungry for investment.
Lastly, far from Tanzania being a poor country, we have become not only a country of uneven wealth distribution but also we have failed to attract enough Investments. This leads us to the last issue and question this column wishes to address; What if we recognize that we have a big problem without the two variables, meaning the injustice of the distribution and the weakness of investment? Perhaps this finding would affect our self-esteem and how we reconcile our thinking, in return, while we are facing the harsh reality in which we are living, we should recognize with humility that the reality that challenges our generation today are no longer defined in one term. Therefore our worries should not only be to punish the poor with the poor distribution but also we should avoid to discourage Investors due to the absence of a good investment environment; which at the end, it will create the ideal society, that believes that, we no longer better by distributing what little we have but bringing to reality what we do not have.
Emmanuel D. Tayari
Mobile: +447594707524
Email: e.tayari@tanzaniawealth.com