Zanzibar: Economic Future Looks Bright as Partnership with Malaysia Continues
According to the President, the reforms aimed at stimulating the economy of Zanzibar are showing promising results. The island aims to achieve sustainable economic development with the help of experts from Tanzania and Malaysia. In a meeting with these experts, the President further expressed Zanzibar’s commitment to achieving the Millennium Development Goals.
Below is an article published by Daily News:
Zanzibar President, Dr Ali Mohamed Shein, says the Isles economic future is promising, vowing that workable reforms aiming at improving the economy have to continue.
Dr Shein made the statement at State House where leaders including Vice Presidents: Maalim Seif Sharif Hamad and Ambassador Seif Ali Iddi, ministers, Deputy Ministers, Principal Secretaries, and other executives met to discuss best economic transformation for Zanzibar.
The discussion on economics at the State House was facilitated by experts from Malaysia and Tanzania and suggested best practices for sustainable economic growth.
“We have been moving on well with our plans. Already we have promising speedy growth resulting from the positive changes,” said Dr Shein as he thanked the experts from Malaysia for coming to share experience with Tanzanians.
The team from Malaysia was led by Dr Idris Jala- Minister and head of the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (PEMANDU), a unit under the Malaysia Prime Minister’s Office.
PEMANDU’s main role and objective is to oversee implementation and assess progress of the Economic Transformation Programme and the Government Transformation Programme.
“We appreciate and value the knowledge from Malaysia given to us. We thank Dr Jala and his team in helping us transform our economy,” said Dr Shein who also commended Malaysia for awarding Zanzibar scholarships.
Dr Shein said that the scholarship in economics in Malaysia have already started showing good results, and that it led to the Zanzibar’s economic transformation strategy programme launched last year [2014].
He said that the areas of priority in the programme is Vision 2020, Millennium Development Goals, and MKUZA II, “we hope to do better with the presence of the experts from Malaysia, country which has been recording success in economy.”
Dr Shein said that the economic growth of 7.4 percent in 2013 and the anticipated 7.8 percent by the end of this year (2015) is an indication of the workable plans with support from Malaysian experts.
He said the growth is one of the most admirable growths in Sub-Saharan Africa. Ambassador Mohamed Ramia Abdiwawa, advisor to Dr Shein, said, “the one-day meeting with experts from Malaysia was a big opportunity for Zanzibar economists and planners to make sure that they move ahead.”
