PERMANENT Secretary in the Ministry of Minerals, Mr Kheri Mahimbali has outlined seven critical measures being undertaken by the ministry in order to arrive at the 10 per cent target contribution to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2025.
Key among the measures include rolling out the process of developing the country’s ten-year mining strategy, stakeholders’ engagement, addressing some pertinent tax issues and leveraging partnerships.
According to the PS, in the third quarter of last year, the mining sector had a 9.7 per cent share to the GDP, a clear reflection of the ministry’s commitment of realising and even surpassing the set goal ahead of time.
Mr Mahimbili revealed this on Friday while making reflections on his 100 days in office through a detailed report posted through his Twitter handle.
“I believe that every actor has their own role to play in amplifying the sector’s contribution to development … I personally place the highest priority on the private sector, and so is the ministry,” noted the PS.
He added “I believe investors should be treated as voters. We need to provide them with a favorable environment for them to ‘vote’ on critical business decisions whose result is to create new jobs leading to more inclusive growth.”
As such, he said the ministry has initiated a process to recruit an expert who will support development of a ten-year mining strategy for the country.
The initiative, as stated by the PS, is geared towards complimenting other development plans whilst setting specific objectives for maximising development outcomes from mineral resources exploitation.
He indicated the revival of discussions with development partners on financing the mining projects across the country, as well as migrating to electronic communication and information creation.
The PS said by adopting a software solution, e-Office, the ministry can share information, conduct business, and manage documents, thus pushing forward the green growth agenda by the government as per the commitment made by President Samia Suluhu Hassan at the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 27).
Among others, is Tanzania’s drive to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon future (net-zero commitment). This includes reducing printing and postage emissions to help reach carbon-neutral goals.
Also, the ministry has laid a foundation for the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) among the mining sectors in the Mainland and Zanzibar. The MoU, which aims at strengthening, reconciling and formalising systems among the sectors, will be signed later this month.
“The ministry engaged a number of stakeholders, large and small, to get a better understanding of their concerns and find ways to address them,” he said.
Expounding further, the PS noted that the ministry has addressed some of the mining tax issues that investors faced in the last two years. In some cases, the said challenges were an impediment to big miners in their quest to raise capital in the global markets.
“We will continue to work closely with our key stakeholders and government agencies in order to improve the tax regime in the mining industry,” maintained the PS.
On the other hand, the ministry held discussions on leveraging partnerships for sustainable mining, with representatives from various diplomatic missions in Tanzania.
The areas ranged from government-government opportunities to capacity development opportunities, noting that the Government of India has committed to offer 400 scholarships.
