TZ@60: Why Tanzania must align its local agenda with foreign policy

Dar es Salaam. Tanzania starts a new journey into the next 60 years on December 9, 2021. From that day the term ‘young nation’ will hardly feature in any references to Tanzania. As the country makes forays deeper into maturity new development challenges might arise as outside sympathizers decrease in number. Certainly the old problems would not go away.

Dealing with the new dawn would need a new kind of mindset with a new sense of urgency and a break-up with business-as-usual manner of conducting government business. Above all, Tanzania will need a new domestic agenda that is inclusive enough to be able to mobilize the people around a common development goal, which is the country’s development, analysts say. The economic agenda will also be crucial to help bring a sense of direction to Tanzania’s foreign policy.

This is because a developing country like Tanzania with no technology or capital of its own needs an effective foreign policy. The 20 years of the implementation of the new economic diplomacy has taught the country that a foreign policy is not simply a set of documented principles and strategies. It is actions that determine foreign policy.

As the foreign policy is the extension of the domestic policy in the international arena, Tanzania has to undertake the difficult task of putting its economic house in order.

Three decades of reforms on paper, which focused on macro-economic stability and fulfillment of IMF-prescribed Structural Adjustment Programmes, have set the ground for the new kind of an economic domestic agenda to take place.

In introducing this kind of new agenda Tanzania would have to borrow a leaf from the manner in which the Arusha Declaration was introduced, popularized and implemented.

While this agenda should be made to look like an extension or a reformed Arusha Declaration it must also be crafted and defended with all sincerity and good intentions as it was the case for Arusha Declaration.

The central promise in the new agenda will be inclusivity. This will be the main challenge. Because the powers that be will have to show that they really want everybody included in the economic development and wealth creation regardless of colour, tribe, religion, gender or political affiliation. The masses will have to be mobilized. Strategies will have to be made and action taken to make sure the Tanzanian middle class takes shape. Mass mobilization will definitely result in more participation of Tanzanians in their own economy and will definitely lead to policy stability and predictability. The unpredictability that has characterized Tanzania’s economic policy-making in the last three decades has been because of the impression that the economy has been under the hands of a few, mainly foreign investors, who are viewed as being only focused on maximization and repatriation of profits.

Predictability of policy is necessary for economic diplomacy and to attract the confidence of those economic partners that Tanzania badly need, who come with quality, substantive and long-term capital in key sectors as opposed to capital speculators.

Part of the new domestic agenda would be to change the way soft and hard infrastructure is built, according to analysts.

Abbas Mwalimu, an analyst in political and foreign policy issues, says the new way of building infrastructure will enable the government to make good on the commitment it made in its new foreign policy, that is, building to facilitate international environment.

“People’s mindset must change. People must now understand that the direction of the economy has changed. But a facilitative internal environment is also built by building soft and physical infrastructure that connects directly to economic activities, including smallholders,” says Mr Mwalimu who also teaches at the Centre for Foreign Relations in Kurasini Dar es Salaam.

He adds; “Here you build a link between the port and the railways to enable bulky, heavy freight to go directly from rail to port and vice versa. You also build the roads that link farmers with markets.

You also build the value chain. In the middle of the chain there must be agro-processing and packaging industries. Failure to do that will result into things like Kenyan traders going to Njombe to buy avocados, package them and sell them as Kenyan products.``

Mr Mwalimu says the main challenge is in the empowerment of smallholders. “[Smallholders] do not yet have the capacity to access overseas markets due to lack of adequate information. For example, EU standards on bananas are specific about size, etc. but the farmer does not know about the standard requirements which could be attained by using a certain kind of fertilizer.” Mr Mwalimu notes that the manner in which ATCL airplanes are deployed will show how smart the government is in implementing its economic diplomacy policy.

“It is good that ATCL has opened a route to Guangzhou China because of the volume of trade between Guangzhou and Africa. We should send the airplanes to those areas where we know we can link Tanzania with the outside world for maximum benefits. If we want to tap European business and leisure travel then we should open the route to Frankfurt. It is a big trade and investment centre in Europe. If we go to Frankfurt we know we will get tourists from Germany, Poland. In as far as marine transport is concerned it’s a pity that we have not established modern, credible and reliable transport systems to Comoro. They look at us in terms of business and supplies and we are letting the opportunity pass,” he says.

Prof Abdallah Safari, a veteran foreign policy analyst, says an effective economic diplomacy is one that ensures that Tanzania benefits from its own resources to the maximum through cooperation with other countries or foreign investors. To be able to do that Tanzania will have to review Mwl Julius Nyerere’s dealings with foreign investors.

“Mwl Nyerere tried a lot, especially in the mining sector, to ensure that we got 60 per cent of the profits. We had only about two mining companies, a gold mine in Geita and the Williamson Diamond Mine in Shinyanga and the government was getting 60 per cent.

But later Tanzania settled for three per cent. Three per cent? There is a country that has a good economy and political stability called Botswana. A few years ago they entered into an agreement with De Beers’ in which they get 70 per cent profit. De Beers’ has the diamond monopoly in the world. When Botswana were asked how they could pull that off they answered that they were emulating Mwl Nyerere.”

Prof Safari adds; “This morning I was listening to the minister for Mining and he said they have entered an agreement with a foreign company to conduct mining activities and the government will get 50 per cent. Now this is economic diplomacy.