Grace Kambaulaya
The Guardian
THE Japanese International Cooperation Agency
(JICA) has said it will assist Tanzania to realise its core agenda of
the second Five-Year Development Plan (FYDP II), which will hinge on
nurturing industrialization for economic transformation and human
development.
As
a long term development partner, JICA intends to put strong emphasis on
industrial development and implement the Tanzania government vision and
strategy in a comprehensive way by employing the Kaizen system of
industrial management. JICA has been supporting Tanzania for the past 50
years.
Speaking to reporters, the JICA Tanzania chief representative, Toshio Nagase, said first the agency is going to support policy development and business environment transformation through an industrial policy advisor and a general budget support, known as private sector DOP - in the loan agreement, which was set to be signed yesterday.
“On policy aspects, we are going to support development of the second five-year development plan through comprehensive consultation and at high level policy dialogue,” he said.
“Secondly, we also aim to support SMEs through industrial cluster development and Sido-CRDB credit guarantee scheme,” he added.
“Third, we are going to assist in the development of leaders through scholarship programmes, known as ABE (Africa Business Education) initiative and various short term training courses for industrial development,” he said.
But beyond on-going assistances, several new projects such as concessional loans for financial institutions towards industrial development are also now on the pipeline, he said.
He noted that in this comprehensive assistance for industrial development, Kaizen is the preferred key project to build a comprehensive and positive business climate and the capacity and competitiveness of Tanzanian enterprises through productivity and quality improvement.
Kaizen was originally born in Japan in the 1950’s and has already spread all over the world including US, Europe and Asia. JICA’s assistance on Kaizen started in Singapore in 1983 and has been expanded to other countries.
Based on the successful experience from other countries in promoting Kaizen nationwide, there is the need for adequate intervention by government and promotional institutions in Tanzania for the project to succeed in the country, he said.
Industry, Trade and Investment Minister Charles Mwijage, speaking at the function said the government had taken decisive measures to revamp the country’s industrial economy; an objective which once achieved would be followed by a deliberate imposition of higher taxes on imported goods to safeguard the local market.
Mwijage said some investors bought industries through the privatisation programme, but in the process, their entities have not been in operation, saying the government is committed to reviving those industries in order to employ more people and rake in more revenues from them.
On his part, the Vice President, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) in Tokyo, Tetsushi Sonobe said most managers in developing countries think that their management skills are well above average.
“Policymakers and advisers tend to assume that managers are knowledgeable about management because they have operated business for years. This is a common pitfall that these stakeholders fall into,” he added.
“Management must be improved so that workers perform more efficiently and proactively,” Sonobe, who is an expert in industrial development in developing countries and has conducted more that 25 case studies of development of industrial clusters in Asia, Africa and Central American for 25 years, said.
He said since 2007 he has conducted randomized controlled trials of management training in Ghana, Kenya, Ethiopian, Tanzania and Vietnam to assess the impact of management training programmes featuring Kaizen on business practices, performance and the well-being of workers and business people.
Speaking to reporters, the JICA Tanzania chief representative, Toshio Nagase, said first the agency is going to support policy development and business environment transformation through an industrial policy advisor and a general budget support, known as private sector DOP - in the loan agreement, which was set to be signed yesterday.
“On policy aspects, we are going to support development of the second five-year development plan through comprehensive consultation and at high level policy dialogue,” he said.
“Secondly, we also aim to support SMEs through industrial cluster development and Sido-CRDB credit guarantee scheme,” he added.
“Third, we are going to assist in the development of leaders through scholarship programmes, known as ABE (Africa Business Education) initiative and various short term training courses for industrial development,” he said.
But beyond on-going assistances, several new projects such as concessional loans for financial institutions towards industrial development are also now on the pipeline, he said.
He noted that in this comprehensive assistance for industrial development, Kaizen is the preferred key project to build a comprehensive and positive business climate and the capacity and competitiveness of Tanzanian enterprises through productivity and quality improvement.
Kaizen was originally born in Japan in the 1950’s and has already spread all over the world including US, Europe and Asia. JICA’s assistance on Kaizen started in Singapore in 1983 and has been expanded to other countries.
Based on the successful experience from other countries in promoting Kaizen nationwide, there is the need for adequate intervention by government and promotional institutions in Tanzania for the project to succeed in the country, he said.
Industry, Trade and Investment Minister Charles Mwijage, speaking at the function said the government had taken decisive measures to revamp the country’s industrial economy; an objective which once achieved would be followed by a deliberate imposition of higher taxes on imported goods to safeguard the local market.
Mwijage said some investors bought industries through the privatisation programme, but in the process, their entities have not been in operation, saying the government is committed to reviving those industries in order to employ more people and rake in more revenues from them.
On his part, the Vice President, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) in Tokyo, Tetsushi Sonobe said most managers in developing countries think that their management skills are well above average.
“Policymakers and advisers tend to assume that managers are knowledgeable about management because they have operated business for years. This is a common pitfall that these stakeholders fall into,” he added.
“Management must be improved so that workers perform more efficiently and proactively,” Sonobe, who is an expert in industrial development in developing countries and has conducted more that 25 case studies of development of industrial clusters in Asia, Africa and Central American for 25 years, said.
He said since 2007 he has conducted randomized controlled trials of management training in Ghana, Kenya, Ethiopian, Tanzania and Vietnam to assess the impact of management training programmes featuring Kaizen on business practices, performance and the well-being of workers and business people.
No comments :
Post a Comment