UNCTAD will conduct a ten-day entrepreneurship training workshop for participants from Tanzania´s medium, small and micro enterprises, beginning on 21 January in Dar es Salaam.
The workshop is the first to be held in Tanzania under UNCTAD´s entrepreneurship training programme, known as EMPRETEC. The aim is to make Tanzania a full participant in the programme. EMPRETEC was initiated in Argentina in 1988 and has since expanded to 27 countries throughout the world.
The workshop in Dar es Salaam will draw 30 participants among women and young people operating in the food processing, handicrafts, hotel and tourism sectors, both manufacturing and services. Trainers from Zimbabwe, Jordan and UNCTAD headquarters in Geneva will conduct the workshop.
EMPRETEC is an integrated capacity-building programme which seeks to help promising entrepreneurs build innovative and internationally competitive small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). The programme also encourages mutually beneficial business linkages among SMEs as well as with Transnational Corporations. As a result, it contributes to the development of a dynamic private sector and an open entrepreneurial culture.
The workshop is expected to provide participants with a complete assessment of their entrepreneurial potential and strengthen their ability to identify and exploit business opportunities. Other aims include equipping participants with knowledge regarding how to initiate and sustain business decisions in the face of adversity and how prepare business plans for assessment by the banking community.
It is estimated that over 80% of businesses in Tanzania are micro, small or medium-sized enterprises, and many of these operate in the informal sector. About a third of the country´s GDP originates from SMEs.
UNCTAD´s EMPRETEC programme comes at a time when Tanzania has achieved a speeding up of growth in gross domestic product, to an average annual rate of 7% since 2000, against a background of low and stable inflation. Underpinning this positive macroeconomic performance are comprehensive policy and structural reforms, combined with efforts to promote good governance. Much of the progress is attributable to a number of post-1992 reform initiatives and commitment to the international development agenda, including the Millennium Development Goals.
The country´s private sector, however, has not fully exploited the opportunities created by the more dynamic economy. This reflects constraints such as poor management systems, production techniques and marketing skills; low value added; an inadequately trained workforce; and less intensive use of technology.
