For instance, poverty rates continue to fall, the 26.8 percent figure recorded in 2016 down from 34.4 percent in 2007, while public spending as a proportion of GDP is set to rise to 9.1 percent for 2018/19, a marked increase on the 5.5 percent seen in the previous period.
Investment geared towards making Tanzania more business-friendly is also bearing fruit.
According to the World Bank, the East African country ranks solidly in the middle of Sub-Saharan nations when it comes to the ease of doing business, above the likes of economic powerhouse Nigeria.
Drill deeper into the findings, and Tanzania stands out when it comes to processes surrounding imports and exports, an important factor in the overall ease of doing business ranking.
For example, implementing the Tanzania Customs Integrated System (TANCIS), an online portal for downloading and processing customs documents, has reduced the time it takes to import and export from the country and land-linked countries, a move which has made it the fastest subcontinent destination in the area of border compliance (for imports).
THE GATEWAY TO EAST, CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN AFRICA
Central to Tanzania’s appeal as an importing and exporting hub is the Port of Dar es Salaam.
A prominent gateway in and out of the continent, its profile has risen markedly over recent years, with companies such as Tanzania International Container Terminal Services (TICTS) playing a lead role in attracting greater volumes of traffic. Dar es Salaam is the major commercial port for local and transit import and export activity in East Africa, as more than 90 percent of the containerized traffic going in and out of the country is handled here. In addition, it is geographically located in a very strategic position and provides a gateway to six of the land-linked countries in East, South and Central Africa. This is shown in the statistics, as some 40 percent of the cargo handled at Dar is for transit countries.
As the largest specialised container terminal in Tanzania, TICTS manages the container handling activities at berths eight, nine, 10 and 11 and the inland container depot at Kurasini, handling more than five million TEUs since the turn of the millennium.
This involves the ongoing rehabilitation of berths one to seven, upgrades reflecting the future vision for the container terminal which is to accommodate Post Panamax vessels. The ongoing expansion is also aligning with TICTS operations, especially with capital dredging which means heavy drafted vessels above 10.5 metres can also be handled without restrictions.