QUIET BUT KEEN DIPLOMACY AS MAGUFULI HOSTS NORWEGIAN MINISTER

OSLO, NORWAY:

TANZANIA has increasingly continued to host EU leaders as a sign of long standing and strong partnership between Europe and this most stable nation in Sub-Saharan Africa in what can now be described as quiet but keen diplomacy under current President John Pombe Magufuli of Tanzania.

Since the days of Tanzania’s Founding President Mwalimu Julius Kambara Nyerere, Tanzania hs been a darling of the European countries and a clear model of serious, democratic and developing nations in sub Saharan Africa which has also been a source of stability in the region.

The Norwegian Minister for International Development, Nikolai Astrup arrived in Tanzania for a four-day visit in the country that implements unprecedented economic reforms for its people. Mr. Astrup met the Tanzanian reformist President Magufuli on Wednesday and held talks on bilateral cooperation between the two countries.

President Magufuli has led Tanzania to implement reforms which continues to transform Tanzania’s economic growth, becoming the fourth fastest growing economy in the world, a report by Harvard University’s Centre for International Development.      

President Magufuli of Tanzania

Tanzania is rich in natural resources with abundant opportunities for investment in Tanzania. The nation has been implementing large scale economic projects in communications infrastructure such as rail road, which is being modernized to standard gauge (SGR) since the times of German rule more than 100 years ago.

Other large scale projects include power plants, agriculture, Energy, Oil and Gas, Health infrastructure, Air transportation and many others.

Astrup is in Tanzania

Apart from much development projects that Norway has been funding in Tanzania, Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA), the only agricultural University in Tanzania has been benefiting from the Kingdom’s bilateral aid for many years.

“We cannot thank the Royal Kingdom of Norway much for their continued assistance to our University, we have been receiving research funds for many many years, which has also cemented brotherly relationship with the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), making us the leading agricultural University in the region,” said SUA Professor who requested anonymity.

The Norwegian Minister is expected to hold meetings with Tanzania’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation, Ambassador Augustine Mahiga, Minister for Finance and Planning Dr Phillip Mpango and Commissioner General of Tanzania Revenue Authority Charles Kicheere.

The visiting Minister is also expected to hold talks with Minister of State in Vice President’s Office responsible for Environment, January Makamba. Environment is among the defining interests of Norwegian people.  

Tanzania which is re-developing its industrial economy and projects to rightfully become a middle economy by 2025, has a lot to learn from Norway. Today, Norway is an oil-rich nation with a relatively high standard of living. The Norwegian oil industry supports the country’s robust social welfare, education and cultural programs.

Support for the agricultural university in Tanzania over years also signaled Norwegian’s interest in helping Tanzania and Africa to alleviate poverty and build strong economies. On his tour, Nikolai will inspect the silos his country helped construct. He will be accompanied with the Deputy Minister for Agriculture, Omary Mgumba.

Norway has also been helping Tanzania, a country on path to become one of the strongest economies in Africa, in improving Tanzania's own income generation, through improved tax administration. This is critical to achieve our shared vision for pro-poor development, says Ms Ingunn Klepsvik, once Norwagian ambassador to Tanzania.

In 2011 Norwegian development assistance to Tanzania was 107 million USD. Out of this 43 million USD was provided as General Budget Support.

The speed and efficiency of delivering 2015 election promises, is incomparable since the first Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere. The current level of investment in manufacturing industries and social service delivery is growing faster than most Sub Saharan Africa.

In his two years of driving policies and incentives on industrialization, over 3,000 new factories are on different stages with some already rolling. He has revamped the National Airline into a 21st Century AirTanzania with six new planes as more are coming.

Construction of the US$3.55 billion Hoima-Tanga crude oil pipeline and the over TZS 7.2 trillion standard gauge railways are some of the historical projects that are taking shape.

On social services, since independence Tanzania has had 77 District hospitals. In other words, it is only 45% of all the districts in Tanzania that had hospitals. It would be right to say that 55% of the administrative districts in the country did not have hospitals worth of district levels. Tanzania has about 170 administrative Districts.

Tanzania won her political independence from Britain about 57 years ago in 1961. Since 2015 when President John Pombe Magufuli was elected in office, things never remained the same.

To anyone’s disbelief, in just two and a half years alone, the Tanzanian leader, nicknamed “the bulldozer,” constructed a record 67 new district hospitals, raising the profile to 144 district hospitals.