Tanzania: ...CCM Manifesto Eyes Exponential Growth

By Florence Mugarula in Dodoma

CREATION of eight million new jobs was among key highlights as CCM's campaign unveiled its 2020/2025 Election Manifesto, at the jam-packed Jamhuri Stadium in Dodoma on Saturday.

It identifies key areas that aim at bringing both political and social-economic changes, touching on jobs, industrialization, infrastructure, tourism, further improvement of education and health sectors, if

incumbent President John Magufuli is re-elected on October 28, this year.

The 303-page document was unveiled before hundreds of thousands of CCM members and other wananchi, who thronged the venue as early as from 6.am ready for the party's election campaign launch.

According to the document, the ruling party is looking to implement various key socio-economic projects, which have been identified in seven categories.

They include people-centred economic revolution, science and technology, peace and security, good governance and justice, international relations, implementation of crucial issues in Zanzibar's election manifesto and other areas of emphasis in the country development plans.

The manifesto among other things identifies key areas for bringing economic changes, most of them being continuation of the 2015/2020 Election Manifesto.

It demands the creation of eight million jobs, mainly targeting youths in both formal and informal sectors.

The document clearly lists some crucial areas for concentration in propelling economic growth which the government will focus on.

It includes strengthening the financial sector, inclusion of the private sector in economic development, fighting poverty at both individual and national levels, improvement of entrepreneurship and strengthening Tanzania Social Action Fund (TASAF).

Other key areas include development of the blue economy, in which the manifesto explains that the coming government will ensure sustainable use of the marine resources for economic growth.

It accentuates the significance and the potentials of the marine and coastal environment in the country, which should not only rely on fisheries but also on other sectors such as maritime transport, coastal tourism and natural gas, which can contribute significantly towards national socio-economic development.

The document also envisages the proper use of the country's geographical advantage to boost the economy, create more employment opportunities, setting strategies for supervising cooperative unions, improvement of agriculture, livestock and fishing sectors and development of the industrial sector.

Other key issues in the list include improvement of trade, strengthening of infrastructure and transportation sector, and improvement of communication by setting a good environment to promote innovation and technology in the sector.

The 2020/2015 CCM manifesto also highlights the strategies on the improvement of the energy sector, mining and other natural resources.

It also takes into account the best practices for land allocation and uses.

The new document indicates that in the coming five years, the CCM government aims at improving financial services and promotes a competitive market for local and international markets to stimulate economic growth.

The manifesto also aims at improving the environment of doing businesses through a blueprint for regulatory reforms to improve the business environment.

The document also indicates that the government will improve the contribution of the blue economy in the country's development initiatives and promote digital economy, so that it could stimulate economic growth at all levels.

The party through the manifesto aims to ensure financial services are obtained at low cost, minimise consumer protection barriers and strengthen financial institutions such as banks, Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA), Bank of Tanzania (BoT) and Tanzania Insurance Regulatory Authority (TIRA).

On the involvement of the private sector, the party through its manifesto states that the government will ease procedures for establishing investments in the country through National Economic Empowerment Council (NEEC). Increased registration of Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) is also given priority.

Also, the document maintains that the government will promote the blueprint for regulatory reforms to improve the business environment so as to attract more private investors.

Other areas include to campaign for the extensive uses of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) and ensure the availability of land for investment and strengthen financial services to ensure availability of capital.

On entrepreneurship, the party's manifesto states that the government will push for groups' registration so that wananchi could easily access funds for starting and boosting their businesses.

It also calls for close follow-up on the provision of entrepreneurship training so as to ensure the training and skills meet agreed qualities.

The document also states that the government will come up with a strategy that will enable youth from vocation training colleges to get working tools and capital with affordable conditions.

The government will also come up with special programmes that will enable graduates to get capital, entrepreneurship training and thus employ themselves.

According to the document, the government will form strong strategies that will enable clear exploitation and uses of such resources.

On creating employment, the document maintained that the coming government will create at least seven million employment opportunities in the informal sector through promoting development of industries, promoting the implementation of the blueprint, to ensure all councils across the country continue allocating funds for supporting youth, women and disabled.

According to the document, over six million employment opportunities were created in the past five years.

On agriculture, the party through the manifesto promises to continue maintaining good agriculture practices and ensure the application of science and technology.

The party maintains that irrigation farming infrastructure will be increasing from 561,383 hectares to 1,200,000 hectares by 2025.

To build 208 irrigation schemes, expansion and renovation of water harvesting dams and improves the maintenance of irrigation infrastructures.

The document also explains that the government will ensure the production of cash crops.

It states that the production of cashew nuts will increase from 300,000 to 700,000 tonnes by 2025.

It also targets to boost production of cotton from 350,000 to 1,000,000tonnes by 2025, coffee from 68,000 to 300,000 tonnes by 2025, tea from 37,000 to 60,000 tonnes, tobacco from 60,595 to 200,000 tonnes, pyratheram from 2400 to 3200 tonnes and sisal from 38,506 to 80,000 tonnes.

The document also insists on the improvement in the production of sugarcane, sunflower and many others.

On livestock keeping, the manifesto maintains that the government will continue with its good job of improving the sector through increasing the number of veterinary officers and enrolling more students to pursue veterinary related courses.

On industries, the manifesto states categorically that in the coming five years the government will continue to strengthen all strategies for building, reviving and maintaining existing industries across the country.

According to the document, the government will increase employment opportunities through industries from 306,180 of 2020 to 500,000 in the coming 2025.

On infrastructure, it explains that the government will continue to implement its strategic projects for the country's economic growth.

In the coming five years the CCM government pledged to finalize the ongoing major projects including Standard Gauge Railway (SGR), roads, bridges, fly-overs, weight bridges, public buildings and many others.

On transportation, the document reads that in the coming five years, the government will maintain and improve services sea/water services by constructing oil tanks at various ports, construction of 12-15 berths, construction of central workshop, construction of entrance channel and turning basin, construction of Ihumwa dry port and many others.

The document also maintains that the improvement will continue for Mtwara port, Lake Victoria ports, Lake Tanganyika ports and Lake Nyasa ports.

The manifesto also assured that the government will continue with the construction of SGR, airports and improve TAZARA infrastructures.

In the energy sector, the manifesto maintained that the government will continue with the implementation of various development projects in the sector.

It states that the government will finalise the construction of Julius Nyerere Hydropower project (JNHP) in the coming five years.

It also focuses on finalisation of connecting all villages to electricity through the Rural Energy Master Plan.

On Tourism, the manifesto states that the government will ensure the number of tourists is increasing to five (5) million by 2025.

According to the manifesto, the revenue from the sector is set to increase from the current 2.6bn US dollar to 6bn US dollar by 2025 by improving among others, cultural tourisms, enhancing more hunting blocks, promoting conference tourism through building state-of-the-art conference halls, attracting more cruise ships and boats into the country and implement other strategies that will help in promoting tourism.

Other areas include continuing providing free and quality education, improving health services, improving and promoting science and technology, maintaining peace and security and ensuring good governance.