Dar es Salaam — President Samia Suluhu Hassan yesterday outlined a raft of measures her government will take to stimulate economic growth, which has been adversely affected by the global Covid-19 pandemic.
President Hassan – who assumed the presidency on March 19 following the death of her predecessor, Dr John Magufuli, on March 17 – spent almost a third of her 90-minute maiden speech to Parliament articulating what the government would do to regain investor confidence.
She also explained how economic diplomacy, provision of incentives to strategic projects, fighting corruption and getting rid of bureaucracy in issuance of work permits and approval of investment projects, among others, would boost investment to spur economic growth to at least eight percent annually.
That, President Hassan said, would put the country on a firm footing as it seeks to shake off the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has ravaged the global economy in the past year.
“Due to Covid-19, economic growth dropped from an average of 6.6 percent to 4.7 percent last year. We need massive investment to spur economic growth,” she told a packed House.
President Hassan said her government would oversee changes to policies, laws and regulations governing investment with a view to making them more attractive to investors.