allAfrica.com: Tanzania: Investment Policy 'Favours Foreigners'

allAfrica.com: Tanzania: Investment Policy 'Favours Foreigners'

Let us think developmental

Think simply about creating an effective road system in a country. This depends on effective policies (to design the road system, for example, and to hire the companies to implement it). This depends on adequate public finance; to be able to raise the needed funds, out of the budget, or bond issues, or public-private partnerships. This depends on honesty. Many road projects never produce actual roads because of the high burden of corruption. And this requires decent geopolitics. The country must be at peace. It perhaps needs one or more international partners to get the job done. Obviously roads provide just one example of how good governance combines policy, politics, finance, and foreign affairs. One can say the same about education, health care, and countless other sectors of the economy. China, one of the fastest growing economies, has excelled in developing the capacity of government at all levels to undertake large-scale infrastructure investments. Rapid inter-city rail now provides a tremendous national transport system. Major cities have urban metro systems. Mass electrification has enabled rapid industrialization. China is an example where the government has played an essential role in enabling very rapid growth. On the other side, there are many poor countries where governments have not yet had the capacity, focus, or interest to undertake the large-scale infrastructure investments needed for effective development.