Zanzibar: Government Plans To Improve Economy

Zanzibar’s Vice-President Mr Seif Sharif Hamad announces plans to improve the island’s economy and obtain the 9 per cent annual GDP growth, by focusing more on tourism, agriculture and fisheries.

Below is an article published by All Africa:

Zanzibar’s First Vice-President Mr Seif Sharif Hamad has said that the Isles government has set plans to improve tourism, agriculture, and fishing sectors.

"We hope that Zanzibar can achieve the 9 per cent annual GDP growth if the three areas are improved," said Hamad when he met a delegation from the National Defence College - Dar es Salaam.

Mr Hamad said that despite unstable global economy, Zanzibar has been doing well with its GDP growing between six and seven per cent, thus anticipating improvement in the near future.

“Global economic crisis has [had a] negative impact on developing countries like Zanzibar, but the impact can be minimized by having sustainable jobs creation through fishing, tourism, and agriculture”, he said. He added that his government is committed to controlling inflation as other efforts to give better life to the citizens are put in place.
Tanzania has generally been working hard to make sure that the value of Tanzania currency against the US dollar gains momentum. "Zanzibar was highly dependent on cloves, which has dropped in the recent years”.

“The government has been working hard to boost tourism and wooing investors as supplement to cloves," Hamad told the delegation from Dar es Salaam. He said that his government is considering peace, stability, and security seriously to make Zanzibar the best destination for tourists in the world.

With improved security, and infrastructure, Zanzibar expects to have a record of five hundred thousand tourists by 2015, up from the current two hundred thousand tourists a year. According to Hamad, Isles government is also determined to undertake irrigation in rice farming, and also encourage deep sea fishing to increase fish catch.