TANZANIA Private Sector Foundation (TPSF) yesterday launched a freight and logistics platform in Dar es Salaam, calling upon the government and other key players to engage amicably in business to enhance the services in the country.
Inaugurating the launch that drew in many stakeholders which form TPSF in its voice of the representing different private businesses owners which attended the occasion, Angelina Ngalula thanked the government for setting aside 2.18 trilion/- in its 2016/17 budget for the growth of the sector in the country.
She named some of the business owners as Transporters Association of Tanzania (TAT), Tanzania Truck Owners Association (TATOA), to Tanzania Shipping Agents Association (TASAAA), among others.
She said they collectively require strategic thinking and planning to improve economy that is not a one-man affair, adding that the private sector must marry with the government to revolutionise and improve the business climate currently prevailing in the country.
She asked the government on behalf of the other key players in TPSF to address barriers in the market which create obstacles in their businesses, singling one as “consumers who must be protected in their rights and only served with standardised quality goods.
” Promising to conduct a survey to improve the business climate in the country, the chairperson of TPSF said that Dar es Salaam port and railway should be under one umbrella as in South Africa where the merge is doing well as they save time to consult one another as one body in business. She also mentioned another gap to exist in the shipping area particularly in Lake Victoria where currently there is no cargo ship to carry loads between Mwanza and Entebbe, yet there is abundant business there.
Angelina who was chairing the TPSF seat further said that the government should reduce road carnages by improving air transport alongside it, citing Kenya where its flights not only carry passengers, but also bank a lot on ferrying flowers as goods that Rwanda also copied as a flourishing industry.
She thanked Trade Mark East Africa (TMA) for pumping in 400m USD into their coffers alongside other financers named as USAID, World Bank, UKaid, DANIDA, Kingdom of Netherlands, amongst others. While presiding over the occasion, Permanent Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Works, Transport and Communication, Prof Faustin Kamuzora, said TPSF and his ministry in the government was like two sides of a coin with both sides serving the same body.
The Prof who was representing Prof Makame Mbarawa, who was meant to be the Guest of Honour, tipped the participants in the launch to read a book he named as ‘techtonography’, saying that it highlights that private and public or the government each should rely on one another to fully address economic upheavals in the country.
He said that competition was a healthy way of doing business if one is to excel and provide services 24 hours especially where perishable goods exist, adding that the private sector must accept other competitors in business and not see them as saboteurs. The Prof promised that good opinions advanced by TPSF will be considered as teething problems, processed and implemented by the authority.
“TPSF is like a think-tank the government values in economy just like any ombudsman. We urge it to have a forum where they can create a good relationship for the sake of our economy to grow and the country,” said the Prof who was once a don at Mzumbe University.
He said if TPSF succeeds in its goals with its partners, it is the government that has succeeded, adding that in a way the former facilitates the work of the latter is a catalyst and watchdog in business.
During the launch, the government promised to open its doors to all the investors and private entities and appreciated the role of TPSF that the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) detailed as representing a body that is leading in growth in the country.
Source: Daily News

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