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Public sector employs only 40,000 per year -minister
2006-05-17 09:36:37
By Pacifique Nkeshimana
The public sector employs only 40,000 new entrants annually into the labour market, leaving about 660,000 to join the unemployed or the underemployed reserve, the Deputy Minister for Industry, Trade and Marketing, Dr David Mathayo David, has announced.
Officiating at a seminar themed: Sustainable Export Competitiveness: Environmental and Social Impact Management for SMEs’ on Monday in Dar es Salaam, he said estimates indicate there are about 700,000 new entrants into the country’s labour force per annum, whereby 500,000 are school leavers who have marketable skills.
He said only few of the entrants get employed by the public sector, letting the majority of them engaging in the small and medium enterprises.
’Small and medium enterprises in the country tend to be labour intensive as they create employment to our youths… they also remain the critical contributors towards curbing unemployment in the country,’ he said.
Dr David said Tanzania SMEs contribute about one third of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
He said given the fact that Tanzania is characterised by a low level of capital formation, SMEs are among the best options citizens have to address this puzzle.
’In Tanzania, the full potential of SMEs sector has yet to be tapped… this is due to the existence of a number of constraints hampering the development of the sector,’ the deputy minister said.
He said the constraints hampering the development of SMEs include, among others, the underdeveloped infrastructure, poor business development services and the low technologies used, and limited market access.
’Other constraints being hampering the SME development in the country are the limited access to information, limited access of SMEs to finance, ineffective and poorly co-ordinated institutional framework and the low level of entrepreneurship,’ he said.
He added: ’In order to facilitate the environmental friendly SME development, the government will support various initiatives geared towards creation of awareness on environmental issues to SMEs and their service providers.’
He further said the government will also encourage proper waste management including recycling techniques.
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