Dar es Salaam. The World Bank Group says it will support Tanzania’s industrialisation by focusing on deepening the EAC Common Market which is crucial in expanding the market for the manufactured goods.

Steven Dimitriyev, World Bank Lead Private Sector Specialist for Tanzania said last week that if well utilised the East African Common Market can serve as a crucial market for the country’s industrial goods and services but restrictions remain that make trade in the region more difficult.

And that is why the WB and other partners such as TradeMark Africa are ready to help Tanzania and other EAC partner states to work on all those issues that still hinder the full implementation of the Common Market protocol.

“Our reasoning is that industrialising the Tanzanian economy will be achievable only if the EAC market becomes easily accessible for Tanzanian goods, services and labour which can be exported and traded across the region, on account of the large size of the market and the opportunities it presents for trade and business development,” Mr Dimitriyev, who was reacting to the Common Market Scorecard 2016 that indicated that EAC partner states still lag behind in some key aspects of integration, said last Wednesday.

He added that the WB, therefore, intends to support EAC trade integration by including it in its package of assistance to Tanzania’s second Five Year Development Programme, which prioritizes industrialization as the approach to creating large number of new and better jobs for the population, especially the youth.

The EA Common Market Scorecard 2016 which tracks compliance by EAC members states in the movement of capital, services and goods, indicated that all EAC member states remain largely non-compliant in key issues.
Source: The Citizen