PRIVATE SECTOR SEEN AS BIG COG FOR INDUSTRIAL GROWTH

Prime Minister, Kassim Majaliwa, greets Kenya's President, Uhuru Kenyatta during the Sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD-VI) in Nairobi yesterday.

The Prime Minister, Mr Kassim Majaliwa, has called on the private sector to support the government’s quest for an industrial economy, insisting that their contribution was vital towards realising the government’s dream.

“We need to work together so that our national development agenda can be achieved. This collaboration will surely bring an economic revolution as well as helping our communities to prosper,’’ he said.

The Prime Minister was speaking at the Sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD-VI) Summit held at the Jomo Kenyatta International Conference Centre (JKICC) in Nairobi, Kenya, at the weekend.

“As the government prepares a conducive environment for business and investment, the main task of the private sector is to bring economic revolution and strengthen the envisaged country’s industrial economy,’’ he added.

Mr Majaliwa, who represented President John Magufuli at the TICAD-VI summit, said Tanzania welcomed all investors from different sectors of Japan to put up various industries in Tanzania.

He emphasized that for the country to realise its goal of industrialisation, it was equally important for African countries and TICAD stakeholders to invest together so as to bring an important pillar of competitiveness.

Commenting on African Business Education Initiative for Youth (ABE), the Prime Minister said: “You cannot talk of economic and industrial transformation without increasing skills of our people who are the main implementers of that change,’’ he said. He added that it was it was also important to consider a demographic priority if putting up an industrial economy was anything to go by.

Earlier, Japanese Prime Minister Mr Shinzo Abe promised leaders of different African countries that his country would provide 10 billion US dollars in a period of three years for infrastructural development in the continent with the African Development Bank (AfDB).

“This pledge aims at strengthening infrastructural development in roads, ports and energy because energy production in Africa is projected to increase by 2,000 megawatts.

The Tokyo International Conference of African Development (TICAD) was launched in 1993 by the Government of Japan, to promote Africa’s development, peace and security, through the strengthening of relations in multilateral cooperation and partnership, particularly with the country.

Coming at a time when aid fatigue had become apparent, the launch of TICAD was catalytic for refocusing international attention on Africa’s development needs.

In the course of the past 20 years, TICAD has evolved into a major global and open and multilateral forum for mobilising and sustaining international support for Africa’s development under the principles of African "ownership" and international "partnership."

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