BabuK
JF-Expert Member
- Jul 30, 2008
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City roads choked by private cars cannot be evidence of urban development when there is no statutory public transport system, retired third phase president, Benjamin Mkapa said.
Mkapa who is also Chairman of the South Centre raised the concern when officially opening a roundtable discussion this week on Development Meets Business: Revisiting Africas Relations with her Partners in Dar es Salaam.
I get dismayed when I hear someone laud the development of Dar es Salaam citing the mushrooming skyscrapers as evidence, said the ormer head of state.
He said there must be evidence of estates of low cost housing, privately or publicly funded, owner occupier, and architecturally designed, well planned suburbs growth to claim strides in urban housing development.
Mkapa said the welfare of the people must be the basic measure of development.
In my view development for poor countries means the eradication of ignorance, disease and food insecurity. And official development assistance (ODA) should be directed preponderantly in these targets, not the acquisition of modern sophisticated weaponry, he said.
Tom Bishop is Africa Director of a research company called Amend that deals with neglected epidemic of child road traffic.
In his article Exciting future of Tanzania's largest city must include better roads, published in The Guardian of UK, he said the growth of Dar es Salaam is inevitable but why lives should be put at risk in the name of development?
He said the planning and development of the city needs to consider everyone not only the small proportion of people who own cars.
Road infrastructure needs to provide for all types of users, including the majority: pedestrians and cyclists, children and elderly people, said Bishop.
Lets not throw away lives and threaten the safety, health and quality of life of millions of ordinary people in our race towards skyscrapers and ring roads. Let's build cities for people, he noted.
Dar es Salaam is already one of Africa's boomtowns it is the second-fastest-growing city in Africa after Lagos, forecast to double in size to more than 7 million people by 2025.
And it contributes around 40 per cent of Tanzania's GDP, which is growing by more than 7 per cent each year.
According to a recent comment by a local newspaper the citys high rise buildings are a sign that the countrys economy is picking up, which the former president has faulted.
Earlier Mkapa mentioned the background of diminishing official loans and official aid, stressing that the private sector, both internal and external, have an overwhelming role in promoting economic growth and development.
He added that the state alone cannot fund the investment necessary to achieve sizeable revenues to bear the cost of social development.
Genuine partnership can conduce to competitive growth, job creation and enhancement of national wealth, Mkapa said, stressing the vital role of the private sector in enabling economic growth and the benefits of public-private partnerships.
SOURCE: GUARDIAN ON SUNDAY
Mkapa who is also Chairman of the South Centre raised the concern when officially opening a roundtable discussion this week on Development Meets Business: Revisiting Africas Relations with her Partners in Dar es Salaam.
I get dismayed when I hear someone laud the development of Dar es Salaam citing the mushrooming skyscrapers as evidence, said the ormer head of state.
He said there must be evidence of estates of low cost housing, privately or publicly funded, owner occupier, and architecturally designed, well planned suburbs growth to claim strides in urban housing development.
Mkapa said the welfare of the people must be the basic measure of development.
In my view development for poor countries means the eradication of ignorance, disease and food insecurity. And official development assistance (ODA) should be directed preponderantly in these targets, not the acquisition of modern sophisticated weaponry, he said.
Tom Bishop is Africa Director of a research company called Amend that deals with neglected epidemic of child road traffic.
In his article Exciting future of Tanzania's largest city must include better roads, published in The Guardian of UK, he said the growth of Dar es Salaam is inevitable but why lives should be put at risk in the name of development?
He said the planning and development of the city needs to consider everyone not only the small proportion of people who own cars.
Road infrastructure needs to provide for all types of users, including the majority: pedestrians and cyclists, children and elderly people, said Bishop.
Lets not throw away lives and threaten the safety, health and quality of life of millions of ordinary people in our race towards skyscrapers and ring roads. Let's build cities for people, he noted.
Dar es Salaam is already one of Africa's boomtowns it is the second-fastest-growing city in Africa after Lagos, forecast to double in size to more than 7 million people by 2025.
And it contributes around 40 per cent of Tanzania's GDP, which is growing by more than 7 per cent each year.
According to a recent comment by a local newspaper the citys high rise buildings are a sign that the countrys economy is picking up, which the former president has faulted.
Earlier Mkapa mentioned the background of diminishing official loans and official aid, stressing that the private sector, both internal and external, have an overwhelming role in promoting economic growth and development.
He added that the state alone cannot fund the investment necessary to achieve sizeable revenues to bear the cost of social development.
Genuine partnership can conduce to competitive growth, job creation and enhancement of national wealth, Mkapa said, stressing the vital role of the private sector in enabling economic growth and the benefits of public-private partnerships.
SOURCE: GUARDIAN ON SUNDAY