Bangkok--Oct 31--eTurboNews
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (eTurboNews) -- Few days to go before Tanzania gets a new leader, the outgoing president Mr. Benjamin Mkapa, popularly known for his tough stand on privatization policies and rigid economic reforms, will bid farewell to the people of Tanzania this week.
Mr. Mkapa, who took over the highest post in Tanzania since 1995, will see his tenure in office ending on November 8th to hand over the helm to the new president to be elected on December 18. The election was originally scheduled to be held on October 30, but had to be postponed following the death of opposition Chadema party vice-presidential candidate, Jumbe Rajab Jumbe.
Leaving a very peaceful nation sunk in abyss of poverty, the outgoing Tanzanian president has been recognized by his stance on internal tax collection and international campaigns on debt cancellation to his country and other impoverished third world countries.
His ten-year leadership achieved great strides in tourism with development of infrastructure and international publicity.
Mkapa's tenure in office saw tourism sector having a very strong and prosperous development with an annual growth of over six percent. Tourism under his government became a major source of foreign exchange and observed an increase of foreign currency earnings from US$ 259 million in 1995 to US$746 million last year.
Tourists visiting Tanzania increased from 295,312 in 1995 to 600,000 last year, a trend that Mkapa's outgoing government planned to push ahead and reach one million tourists in the forthcoming five years.
Huge investments in hotels were seen during Mkapa's ten-years, but more efforts are still needed to develop more than three-quarters of Tanzania's tourist attractive sites which had so far remained underdeveloped and unknown to foreign visitors.
Two new national parks, Kitulo and Saadani, have been gazetted during Mkapa's term in office, and added the previous 12 to 14 national parks.
But his most recognizable achievement is foreign diplomacy, which earned him and his country friends, including international journalists from the United States and Europe.
Rich with natural resources, Tanzania is still facing poverty, malnutrition, illiteracy and lack of skilled manpower to speed up a smooth growth of economy, while performance within the central government systems moves at the snail's pace.
Saying goodbye to the people of Tanzania, President Mkapa is as well, leaving his people at the crossroads to the real economic prosperity. A time when poverty is biting, petty corruption is haunting most key government departments and lack of transparency within the public sector is still a setback.
Covering an area of 945,234 kilometers and the biggest state in East Africa, Tanzania is the only country in the world that has allocated more than 25 percent of total land area to wildlife parks and environmentally protected areas.
This country has 14 protected national parks full of wildlife and natural plants, 33 wildlife game reserves, 44 game controlled areas for sport hunting, one conservation area for wildlife, two marine parks, and huge areas of natural forests.
Sandy beaches along the 800-km long coastline, the famous tourist islands of Zanzibar, the deep water sports island of Mafia, and historical sites are the other major tourist attractions that need urgent development and foreign investment.
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