MISCELLANY

TANZANIA TO GET US$ 990 MILLION
Aid donors and international organisations meeting in Paris on June 29 th and 30th 1992 pledged about US$ 990 million to help finance Tanzania’s development programmes next year. Almost two thirds of the funds will be provided in the form of grants – World Bank News.

PRIVATISATION OF CROP SALES
The Tanzanian Government bowed on July 16th to pressure from Members of Parliament and delayed implementing a decision it had earlier announced to privatise the sale of cash crops. “The Government has, with immediate effect, suspended the new crop purchasing procedure until next year” Prime Minister John Malecela told the National Assembly.

The decision was a setback to economic reforms being pressed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The Government had originally decided also to abolish further interest-free loans for cooperatives to help them to buy crops after the State-run National Bank of Commerce had accumulated US$’5 million in bad debts from cooperatives; the reversal of policy meant that this decision was also reversed.

Mr Malecela explained that the Government’s earlier decision to end a monopoly enjoyed by the cooperative movement had been designed to encourage competition. But angry legislators said that farmers would turn to smuggling if private businesses were allowed to buy crops. “We cannot let cooperatives compete with the wolves” said the Member of Parliament for a northern wheat growing constituency.

ELECTRICTY MONOPOLY ENDED
Tanzania Electricity Supply Company’s (TESCO) 30-year monopoly on the production and supply of electricity has been ended. Minister for Water, Energy and Minerals Jakaya Kikwete told Parliament that it would take years for the whole country to be energised unless private organisations and individuals were free to enter the power market.

TELEVISION COMING
The new Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Dr Shija has told the National Assembly that plans have been finalised for a three-phase programme (estimated to cost Shs 13 billion) for the introduction of television. Some 18 TV stations would need to be built and the Government had agreed to cooperate with local and foreign investors who had shown interest.

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