This is why economic diplomacy is key to Tanzania's growth

Ambassador Liberata Mulamula takes oath as a Member of Parliament following her nomination to the House by President Samia Suluhu Hassan in Dodoma on Thursday. She was later sworn in as Foreign minister. PHOTO | EDWIN MJWAHUZI

Summary

• President Hassan said they have a hard task ahead of them to strengthen international relations with other nations. She stressed that they would listen to her because she worked with them and they understood her.

By Rosemary Mirondo

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Dar es Salaam. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been directed to promote international affairs and renew relations with other countries for the country’s economic diplomacy.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan said this yesterday when swearing in permanent secretaries and deputy permanent secretaries at State House after a minor changes recently.
She stressed that Tanzania was not an island and could only develop if it worked hand in hand with other countries and not isolate itself.
“I have appointed a new Minister, Liberata Mulamula, to head the ministry of Foreign Affairs because she is well versed with it both on the inside and outside and together she will work with the Permanent Secretary Brigadier General Wilbert Ibuge, who has worked outside and represented as well. I want you to work with me to find a chief of protocol so that you can concentrate on other matters,” she said.
President Hassan said they have a hard task ahead of them to strengthen international relations with other nations. She stressed that they would listen to her because she worked with them and they understood her.
“There is a Kiswahili saying that goes ‘if you walk alone you go faster, but if you walk in company you reach far’, so why do we need to walk faster without attaining our goals?” she queried.
Further, she called on the ministry to work as a Union government because there were two sides to the Union and therefore both the Minister and PS should work hand in hand to move the nation forward.
Contacted, Brigadier General Ibuge said: “We have received instructions, all instructions are a priority and we will act on them as required.”
Minister Mulamula and PS- Brigadier General Ibuge
On February 6, last year, President John Magufuli appointed Ambassador Ibuge as permanent secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation, leaving him with the post of Head of Protocol at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation, a few months earlier.
In diplomacy, Ibuge has served as Head of Defence and Planning Affairs, Secretariat in the Southern African Development Community (Sadc).
As for Ambassador Mulamula, she was an envoy to the United States, she successfully coordinated the visit of the heads of state of the world’s major powers in the country--US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping in July 2013.
In 2006/2011 she was the first executive secretary of the International Conference on the 11 Great Lakes Region of Africa on Peace, Stability and Development (ICGLR).