THE government has embarked on formulating a first national policy on local content, which will guide on how citizens benefit in opportunities arising from foreign direct investment projects.
The initiative came at time when the country witnessing a number of FDIs but mostly lacks national level policy on local content-but mining, and oil and gas sectors has the policy.
The move, handed by Prime Minister Office (PMO), started this week by collecting opinions from various stakeholders and the first group was the private sector. The government wants the policy in place by December.
PMO’s Director of Economic Empowerment and Private Sector Development, Mr Conrad Millinga, said the guidance is needed to direct local companies on the benefits from such investments.
“Private sector is the engine of the economy growth. We need to have clear local content policy which will guide us on how we can ensure that locals owned companies benefit from emerging opportunities,” Mr Millinga said.
Mr Millinga said in his introductory remarks while opening the Public Private Sector Consultative meeting on local content policy review on Wednesday, which was co-organised by the Tanzania Private Sector foundation (TPSF).
The Director said FDIs are expected to create new jobs, demand for local raw material and other supplies but there is no local content policy.
“This is one of the reasons barred locals form seizing the opportunities raising from foreign projects, and hence, guidance is needed to support them.
“The absence of national local content policy makes it difficult for the government’s intervention,” Mr Millinga said.
The national level policy once formulated would identify best approaches of supporting local companies to take part in capacity building, community engagement, procurement of local services, technology transfer and ensuring steady supply of raw materials.
TPSF Board Member Mr Sylvester Koka welcomed the effort of formulating the policy to support local companies to build capacity and tap opportunities created by FDIs.
“That way,” Mr Koka said, “local companies at the end of the day also become multinational companies too.”
He urged if there is a clear policy, local companies would grow and graduate to create new jobs even outside the country, which is part of the growth of the national economy.
“We must classify local companies and areas of employment by their categories so that they can keep on growing and benefit the national economy,” Mr Koka said.