United Nations resident coordinator of the UN system, Alvaro Rodriguez (R) stressing a point during the press briefing yesterday when the Development Partners Group (DPG) made a regional field visit in Iringa, which was basically focusing on agriculture, agro-processing and energy. (L-R) is the DPG Co-Chair Maria Van Berlekom- Head of Cooperation Swedish Embassy and acting Regional administrative secretary (RAS) Adam Swai. (PHOTO: FRIDAY SIMBAYA)
The Development Partners Group (DPG) said they are very happy and impressed to be in Iringa Region and promised to continue supporting the region and the country at large.
They said yesterday that Iringa region have potential areas of
investment with abundant arable land for agricultural production and energy despite the few challenges the region is facing.
According to the DPG Co-Chair Maria Van Berlekom- Head of Cooperation Swedish Embassy, Iringa region have available arable land if it will utilized properly can improve the lives of people especially those rural areas.
The land in Iringa is very good for farming because of its climate
which is favourable to agriculture and has no constraints like other
of regions in the country and elsewhere.
She said since their visit to the region they have spotted some
challenges opportunities but if those challenges and opportunities
they can be worked on will improve economic development, hence better lives to the people and poverty reduction.
For instance, she said there is lot of opportunities in energy (electricity) that is produced at Tagamenda Substation but very few energy is used, and if you can use to connect rural areas through rural electrification project it will supplement the wasted energy, hence uplifting the standard of living of people.
She said the substation has two 220kV/33kV (22.5MVA) transformers parallel connected with installed capacity of 40.5MW but the demand at the moment is 9.6MW for Iringa region.
This implies that consumption of energy is less than 25 percent and
more investors are encouraged to invest in Iringa where they have
unutilized energy of 31MW.
The DPG who were representing their heads of countries, heads of
agencies and bilateral cooperation of UN agencies, where on the regional field visit which was basically focused on agriculture, agro-processing and energy to see by their eyes the ongoing development work, opportunities available and the challenges that they have.
On his part, the United Nations resident coordinator of the UN system, Alvaro Rodriguez said UN is supporting technical assistance and knowledge sharing to enable government ministries, departments, agencies, local government authorities and non-state actors to better manage the economy, promote equal access to economic opportunities, improve trade and use natural resources sustainable to spur productivity and job creation.
These are important pro-poor activities, which have been recognized as leading to greater cuts in income poverty.
He said UN is also providing assistance to the Government in developing an inclusive growth strategy to help all Tanzanians to
access opportunities for economic growth, in particular vulnerable
groups such as women and people working in low paying sectors.
He said the UN is good Tanzania next year in its five years strategic planning in economic development and social well being of people especially those marginalized.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of Tanzania Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture (TCCIA)-Iringa Region, Lucas Mwakabungu thanked the regional authority for investing TCCIA-Iringa to participate in the important meeting with development partners group who visited the region.
He also commended the efforts made development partners of decide in this year to visit Iringa region and see for themselves the ongoing development work, opportunities and challenges region faces.
"This visit is an opportunity on our side, it will act as a forum for learning, identifying deviations and getting more inputs and information required for our development," he said.
He took also opportunity to ask our Development Partners to assist the private sector to have cheap sources of financing to viable projects.
"We are facing the challenges in agriculture and agro-processing for instance; high prices of inputs like fertilizers, pesticides and seeds, high cost of energy and lack of capital investment in
agriculture and agro-processing industries with no justifiable returns for loans," he said.
TCCIA- Iringa region is one of the members of - Tanzania Private
Sector Foundation (TPSF) which acts as the apex organization representing all member organizations in the private sector at the national level.
On his part, Asas Dairies Limited Director Fuad Abri on behalf Asas community expressed a great pleasure for DPG delegation who visited his factory based at Kibwabwa Industrial Area some three kilometers from Iringa Town in municipality.
He said the visit will open up doors to more strengthening future
cordial business relations between them and various institutions that were represented.
Asas dairies Ltd is a privately owned dairy processing company, ran in the spirit of private public partnership (PPP).
He said despite the modest successes in dairy processing, the dairy
business environment continues be hostile to operations in a number ways; the government is yet to invest sufficiently in agro-dairy industry that is giving advantage to foreign competitors and rendering the domestic dairy industry noncompetitive.
The system of taxation in the country, especially on agro, is still
repressive and not business friendly which discouraging further
investment.
No comments:
Post a Comment