JK upbeat about middle-income target by 2025

By Alawi Masare, 

President Jakaya Kikwete is optimistic that Tanzania will achieve its target of becoming a middle income economy as planned in the 2025 vision despite the fact that poverty is still a challenge.

Tanzania, East Africa’s second biggest economy has been growing at an average of seven per cent per annum in the past ten years but poverty reduction speed was just two per cent, according to the President.

President Kikwete 

“This is challenging but we hope our target will be achieved,” he remarked during the opening of a day-long national conference on ‘unleashing growth potentials in Tanzania’ yesterday.

“We have done a commendable progress in infrastructure especially roads and we are still expanding. Now the focus is on upgrading ports, railways and airports,” he said.

He mentioned other successful sectors like energy with 36 per cent electricity access currently (above 2015 target) and life expectancy improved from 52 years in 2002 to 61 years in 2012 as some of the achievements of the country in the recent past.

Poverty level stood at 28.2 per cent by 2012 down from 33.4 per cent in 2007, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

However, this year’s theme was economic transformation for human development as part of the preparations of the human development report 2014 funded by the UNDP and to be released before the end of the year.

Stakeholders stressed that economic growth was meaningless if it doesn’t trickle down to people’s life improvement.

“Human development should be the end in the economic progress. It shows that there is social inclusion and involvement of people in the economy,” said Dr. Hoseana Lunogelo, executive director of the Economic and Social Research Foundation.

“We have a wise statement that material development is nothing without human development,” he said.