Blueprint for Regulatory Reforms to Improve Tanzanian Business Environment

Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dodoma has in May 2018 published a Blueprint for Regulatory Reforms to Improve the Business Environment dated December 2017.

The Blueprint provides the Government’s main framework for enabling a holistic review of the business enabling environment (BEE) in order to improve the business climate in Tanzania.

It presents key challenges affecting the business environment in Tanzania along with a set of recommendations for reform to put in place a more business friendly environment.

It covers sector specific regulatory issues in sectors such as:

1. Agriculture and agroprocessing
2. Construction
3. Creative industry
4. Health Sector
5. Immigration and Labour
6. Mining Sector and Mineral Processing
7. Social Security and Labour
8. Tourism
9. Transport and Logistics
10. Utilities – Water and Energy

The Blueprint acknowledges that several business regulatory challenges remain. These include:

1. existence of high compliance costs in monetary terms and time in starting and operating business;
2. cumbersome pre-approval procedures, which create rent seeking opportunities;
3. presence of a multiplicity and duplicity of processes;
4. loopholes in some laws and regulations which are applied by regulators during the conduct of inspections; and
5. prevalence of high costs in enforcing the implementation, both at the central and local levels.

The Blueprint lays down the foundation for the Fifth Phase Government’s resolve to achieve an industrial economy for Tanzania (Tanzania ya Viwanda). The Blueprint states a key task in this regard is to enhance a conducive business environment by carrying out holistic regulatory reforms. The Blueprint seeks to put in place a framework for addressing regulatory hurdles and create a smart, functional and fair business regulatory regime in Tanzania.

The Blueprint emphasizes that effective implementation of the Blueprint recommendations requires that the Government puts in place an effective regulatory capacity as well as a strong private sector, including a wide range of auxiliary institutions that promote business and provide various types of support services, such as trade associations, chambers of commerce and industry, metrology laboratories, standardization bureaus, and similar organizations.

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