WBI Working Paper, May 2006 Author: Anuja Utz, Senior Operations Officer, the World Bank Institute. Download the report in PDF format, 516 KB. Sustained growth that capitalizes on Tanzania’s recent macroeconomic stability and structural reforms will increasingly depend on the economy’s capacity for innovation—that is, the capacity to produce of a wider array of goods and services, accelerate the pace of technological change, and integrate with the global economy. Enhancing this capacity will require investment in human resource development, strengthening of the innovation environment, and strengthening of Tanzania’s information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure. This paper argues that the quality of education, particularly post-primary education, is a crucial element of the capacity to innovate. The paper clarifies that innovation in the Tanzanian context refers to products that previously have not been produced successfully in Tanzania and the adoption of technologies and processes that are new to the country. Innovation is the path to economic diversification and moving up the value chain. Finally, while Tanzania has been able to benefit from the ICT revolution, more work is needed to review and modernize telecommunication policies and regulations to generate fair competition and reduce high communication and operational costs. Improvement in these areas could have important payoffs for Tanzania. For more information, please also see: |
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