nsollo
Member
- Nov 4, 2010
- 35
- 28
(Swahili Version Coming Soon)
Apparently and as per the fifth government manifesto. Tanzania is now moving into an industrial revolution. The only disturbing question is, how is this possible? Or simply put, what is the strategy to achieve this dream?
While it appears as this is the question to be answered by the government and rightly so because this is a government’s initiative. But yet still it concerns all of us as key stakeholders to brainstorm on the starting point. What we know for sure is that the much-dreamed industries will never rain on us like manna from heaven. There must be in place robust strategy and readiness especially by key stakeholders like government and Tanzanian citizens from all walks of life to see to it that this much desired fantasy is realized.
The world economic trend has over the last few decades seen some significant changes in the so called competitiveness equation. Whereas in the past countries used to compete based on things like oil resources, fertile agricultural land and other natural endowments that the country is privileged with.
All these have since fallen out of the competitive equation and now what remains is knowledge competitiveness. The countries that lead or are ahead of others, are those that have heavily invested into innovation and technology. The rapid and significant developments that can be witnessed in the so called Asian tiger countries can largely be explained by the massive investment these countries have poured into innovation and technology. Unfortunately, only a few African countries like Egypt, Tunisia, South Africa and recently Rwanda [albeit in a small scale] have peeped through this secret and acted accordingly.
That said then. It’s our considered opinion that Tanzania ought to take the same path in order to realize our industrial revolution dream. Therefore, the need for us to heavily invest in knowledge in terms of innovation and technology can’t be overemphasized. The rest of the world as said earlier have known this magical pill that heals their economic sicknesses for quite some time and it’s now upon us to borrow a leaf from them and change our fate. The “How to go about it”, is what Mbeya Niobium City (Formally proposed as Tanzanite City) is all about.
Mbeya Niobium City of Science, technology and innovation is a project engineered by ESTA-TZ, a privately owned Limited Company. The project is implemented jointly with Mbeya Region Commissioner’s Office, Chunya District Commissioner’s Office, the office of District Executive Director and the Full Council of Chunya. This project is our humble attempt to fill the gap in technology that our country has suffered for a long time. The problem that has rendered us incapacitated to the extent of even failing to produce trivial items [like toothpicks] and hence opting to import the same from abroad. This shortfall not only badly affects our hard earned foreign currency reserve but also hinders our government’s efforts to provide decent jobs to our learned youngsters.
The project involves putting young graduates from engineering and science background into classified technology camps. There, they’ll be assigned with special mission that they will be required to accomplish within a specified time period. Eventually, upon coming up with the product prototype and mass production infrastructure. With support from the Niobium City they will be assisted to open up industries for full product commercialization. The target is to compete with products from China and other Asian Countries.
The Niobium City is set to be erected in Chunya District – Mbeya Region. Few reasons were considered before arriving at the chosen location. First and foremost, the required land is huge – at least 500 sqkm to start with. Surely very few places in our country can offer a piece of land of this magnitude – Chunya is one of those places. Secondly, we intend to take advantage of our land locked neighbours like Congo, Zambia, Malawi, Burundi and Rwanda – by providing them with One stop shopping centre for their capital goods. In this case again Chunya is a perfect location, as it can easily be accessed by all these countries.
Lastly, of course not in importance, the terrain in Chunya is perfect for setting up industrial activities.
On a full-fledged scale, the Niobium City will accommodate over fifty-five thousand industries. There would be a mixture of industries ranging from light industries to highly sophisticated industries. The population of the Niobium City, in the next 20 years or so, is expected at around 4 million people. These would include technologists, researchers, business entities, government institutions, universities, traders, investors, tourists, families, schools [primary to high school] and many other service providers – all these groups would be accommodated, either on temporary or full time basis in the Niobium City.
Given the magnitude of this project, it’s certain that it would be impossible to accomplish it on our own. With our small team and meagre resources. And as such we need everyone to play their part to make this dream a success. To stimulate participation, we have designed a tool called “Friends Club of the Niobium City” to allow various stakeholders, regardless of their status or level of knowledge or financial position to play a role in this project. The members in this club will have an opportunity to contribute in development of the city. They will also have a chance to invest in different completed technologies – that will be ready for commercialization.
We are focused and determined to make CHUNYA the GUANGZHOU OF AFRICA. In order to realize this target, the role of various stakeholders can’t be overemphasized. As mentioned before, this mission is simply too big to be accomplished by our small team and our insufficient resources, hence we would need the inputs and support of everyone from the government to ordinary wananchi to make this dream a reality. And that can only happen if we have serious and dedicated members in the Friends Club of the Niobium City. Yes, with our coordinated efforts and through advancement in technology indeed we can turn Tanzania into a highly industrialized country in Africa and shift the gravity of technology and industrial development of Africa into Tanzania.
Apparently and as per the fifth government manifesto. Tanzania is now moving into an industrial revolution. The only disturbing question is, how is this possible? Or simply put, what is the strategy to achieve this dream?
While it appears as this is the question to be answered by the government and rightly so because this is a government’s initiative. But yet still it concerns all of us as key stakeholders to brainstorm on the starting point. What we know for sure is that the much-dreamed industries will never rain on us like manna from heaven. There must be in place robust strategy and readiness especially by key stakeholders like government and Tanzanian citizens from all walks of life to see to it that this much desired fantasy is realized.
The world economic trend has over the last few decades seen some significant changes in the so called competitiveness equation. Whereas in the past countries used to compete based on things like oil resources, fertile agricultural land and other natural endowments that the country is privileged with.
All these have since fallen out of the competitive equation and now what remains is knowledge competitiveness. The countries that lead or are ahead of others, are those that have heavily invested into innovation and technology. The rapid and significant developments that can be witnessed in the so called Asian tiger countries can largely be explained by the massive investment these countries have poured into innovation and technology. Unfortunately, only a few African countries like Egypt, Tunisia, South Africa and recently Rwanda [albeit in a small scale] have peeped through this secret and acted accordingly.
That said then. It’s our considered opinion that Tanzania ought to take the same path in order to realize our industrial revolution dream. Therefore, the need for us to heavily invest in knowledge in terms of innovation and technology can’t be overemphasized. The rest of the world as said earlier have known this magical pill that heals their economic sicknesses for quite some time and it’s now upon us to borrow a leaf from them and change our fate. The “How to go about it”, is what Mbeya Niobium City (Formally proposed as Tanzanite City) is all about.
Mbeya Niobium City of Science, technology and innovation is a project engineered by ESTA-TZ, a privately owned Limited Company. The project is implemented jointly with Mbeya Region Commissioner’s Office, Chunya District Commissioner’s Office, the office of District Executive Director and the Full Council of Chunya. This project is our humble attempt to fill the gap in technology that our country has suffered for a long time. The problem that has rendered us incapacitated to the extent of even failing to produce trivial items [like toothpicks] and hence opting to import the same from abroad. This shortfall not only badly affects our hard earned foreign currency reserve but also hinders our government’s efforts to provide decent jobs to our learned youngsters.
The project involves putting young graduates from engineering and science background into classified technology camps. There, they’ll be assigned with special mission that they will be required to accomplish within a specified time period. Eventually, upon coming up with the product prototype and mass production infrastructure. With support from the Niobium City they will be assisted to open up industries for full product commercialization. The target is to compete with products from China and other Asian Countries.
The Niobium City is set to be erected in Chunya District – Mbeya Region. Few reasons were considered before arriving at the chosen location. First and foremost, the required land is huge – at least 500 sqkm to start with. Surely very few places in our country can offer a piece of land of this magnitude – Chunya is one of those places. Secondly, we intend to take advantage of our land locked neighbours like Congo, Zambia, Malawi, Burundi and Rwanda – by providing them with One stop shopping centre for their capital goods. In this case again Chunya is a perfect location, as it can easily be accessed by all these countries.
Lastly, of course not in importance, the terrain in Chunya is perfect for setting up industrial activities.
On a full-fledged scale, the Niobium City will accommodate over fifty-five thousand industries. There would be a mixture of industries ranging from light industries to highly sophisticated industries. The population of the Niobium City, in the next 20 years or so, is expected at around 4 million people. These would include technologists, researchers, business entities, government institutions, universities, traders, investors, tourists, families, schools [primary to high school] and many other service providers – all these groups would be accommodated, either on temporary or full time basis in the Niobium City.
Given the magnitude of this project, it’s certain that it would be impossible to accomplish it on our own. With our small team and meagre resources. And as such we need everyone to play their part to make this dream a success. To stimulate participation, we have designed a tool called “Friends Club of the Niobium City” to allow various stakeholders, regardless of their status or level of knowledge or financial position to play a role in this project. The members in this club will have an opportunity to contribute in development of the city. They will also have a chance to invest in different completed technologies – that will be ready for commercialization.
We are focused and determined to make CHUNYA the GUANGZHOU OF AFRICA. In order to realize this target, the role of various stakeholders can’t be overemphasized. As mentioned before, this mission is simply too big to be accomplished by our small team and our insufficient resources, hence we would need the inputs and support of everyone from the government to ordinary wananchi to make this dream a reality. And that can only happen if we have serious and dedicated members in the Friends Club of the Niobium City. Yes, with our coordinated efforts and through advancement in technology indeed we can turn Tanzania into a highly industrialized country in Africa and shift the gravity of technology and industrial development of Africa into Tanzania.
