Tag: Tanzania

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Tanzania Economy

Tanzania Economy

According to topschoolsintheusa, Tanzania is a Federal state of East Africa, consisting of a continental section, Tanganyika, and an island section, Zanzibar, which also administratively includes the other island of Pemba. It borders to the North with Uganda and Kenya, to the South with Mozambique, to the SW with Zambia and Malawi, to the West with Congo, to the NW with Rwanda and Burundi ; includes large parts of Lakes Victoria, Tanganyika and Malawi; it overlooks the Indian Ocean to the East, where Pemba (to the N) and Zanzibar are located, and further to the South, the island of Mafia, with other smaller ones. The continental section has absolute prevalence (99.7% of the surface and 97% of the state population).

Economic conditions

Already subject to the typical colonial economy, after independence Tanzania assumed a peculiar direction, known as African socialism which, rejecting Marxism, rather sought to unify the population of the country, made up of about 120 different ethnic groups, into a single system national. From the economic point of view, the new model sought to eliminate all forms of capitalism, preventing the concentration of wealth with the spread of cooperation at all levels and taking as a basis the forms of production and solidarity that were typical of pre-colonial African society. However, the socialist-collectivist economic model did not give good results, also because the financial difficulties did not allow to equip the ujamaa(productive nuclei constituted through the aggregation of the population in agricultural communities) of the necessary infrastructures. The world recession in the late 1970s and the effects of a disastrous drought marked the end of the experience and the gradual restoration of a market economy. An improvement in the economic situation took place in the last decade of the 20th century, after the launch (1995) of a macroeconomic stabilization program which helped to encourage the resumption of foreign investment in the rapidly expanding mining sector. In 2009, the growth rate of gross domestic product was 4.5% (7.1% in 2008 and 2007). But the state budget continues to depend to a large extent from international aid and the social situation is particularly critical: the aggregate index of human development calculated by the United Nations in 2005 (life expectancy at birth: 51 years; illiteracy: 31%; per capita income: 744 dollars) Tanzania ranks 157th in the world rankings of 177 countries. ● Agriculture employs about 80% of the active population and contributes 26.6% (2009) to the formation of the gross domestic product. Only 6% of the land area is arable; the best soils are destined for export crops: coffee (52,000 t in 2007), cotton (fiber 109,000 t, seeds 210,000 t) and sisal (27,800 t). Subsistence agriculture produces corn, cassava, rice, sorghum, millet and is exposed to the risk of recurrent drought, with consequent local famines. Breeding (18 million cattle and about the same number of goats and sheep) is practiced largely by nomadic shepherds or within the family production system: large and modernly equipped farms are still few. ● Mineral resources include the extraction of gold (second largest producer in Africa after South Africa and twelfth world producer), diamonds and other precious stones, coal. The industrial activities, almost all concentrated in the Dar es Salaam area, concern basic necessities or transform local raw materials: sugar refineries, textile and tobacco processing plants, breweries, cement factories, fruit canning plants and for the distillation of clove oil. A hydrocarbon refinery is located at the starting point of the oil pipeline connecting Dar es Salaam with Zambia. ● Land communications include approximately 78,000 km of roads (2008) and 4,000 km of railways (2006), of which nearly 1,000 form the new section of the penetration line from Tanzania in Zambia, opened in 1975 to allow access to the sea this country. Dar es Salaam is the main port and has an international airport. Foreign trade is chronically passive: the main partners of Tanzania are the states of the European Union, especially the United Kingdom; on the other hand, trade with other African countries is very scarce. Tourism (692,000 entries in 2007) is constantly expanding, attracted by the national parks and beaches of Zanzibar.

Tanzania Economy