By Dativa Minja
THE government will continue to attach great importance on promoting Kiswahili worldwide, especially by coming up with a strategic plan that will involve all Tanzanian embassies abroad.
This was said in Dar es Salaam yesterday by the Minister for Information, Culture, Arts and Sports, Mr Innocent Bashungwa, when he visited the Tanzania Standard (Newspapers) Ltd (TSN) and held talks with the management.
"In this chart, the Ministry of Information, Culture, Arts and Sports and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and East Africa Cooperation will team up to implement the strategic plan before the end of August this year. "I will meet with my fellow Minister for Foreign Affairs and East Africa Cooperation Ambassador Liberata Mulamula, to look at how to plan as a government and ensure that the strategic plan of promoting Kiswahili is implemented properly," said Mr Bashungwa.
He said the plan will be presented to his office by the end of this August for further instructions. Kiswahili is an official language in Tanzania, Kenya and Rwanda. It is also used in some parts of central and southern Africa.
Mr Bashungwa said his visit to TSN targeted at looking how the state owned Media Company is fulfilling its responsibilities and most importantly, looking at how the company will develop in line with the technological needs of the 2021 century. He said the government's strategy is to build a new TSN that will be able to compete and perform well in the digital world.
"You all know print media is going through a lot of challenges because we are in the digital age. I have come here to learn the institution's plans on how we can help them and I will continue to do so in all other institutions under the Ministry. The objective is to ensure that they are well organised in implementing the 2021/2022 government budget," he pointed out.
Earlier, welcoming the Minister, TSN Acting Managing Editor, Ms Tuma Abdallah briefed the minister on the company's strategies and priorities. She said TSN plans to set up a media lab, introduce patriotic education as well as a resource center that will help Tanzanians to have access to more information and history of the country.
The services will also help build the capacity of writers and understanding as well as bring a sense of patriotism to writer, who have lacked such education.
"In addition to the commercial challenges including the deteriorating business especially in advertising and sales of copies following the emergence of digital world, the worsening of machinery as well as huge debts. TSN is planning to introduce multimedia studio, resource center services, media lab and digital literacy," she said.
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