The Tanzanian Prime Minister has criticized red-tape inefficiency for having hampered the country's investment and pledged to reduce the cost of doing business in the country.
Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda made the comment and pledge at the Third Investors' Round-Table in the country.
The prime minister expressed his disappointment over needless bureaucracy in governmental institutions, local media reports on Tuesday quoted the prime minister as saying.
"This is an area we need to address more seriously if our country is to move ahead," said Prime Minister Pinda.
Tanzania has dropped three positions on the World Bank Doing Business Report for 2009, compared with its previous ranking. The country now ranks 127th among the 181 countries and regions surveyed by the United Nations institution.
The UN report listed as bureaucratic malpractices in the country the issuance of business licenses, company registration, building permits, land certificates and taxation.
Esther Mkwizu, chairperson of the Tanzania Private Sector Foundation, told participants of the investment round-table that sloppiness by some governmental officials had been increasing the cost of doing business in the country.
Some participants called on the Tanzania Business Registration and Licensing Authority to reform and modernize to minimize the time spent on investment processing in the country.
Tanzania was not among the top reformers in the 2009 World Bank ranking whereas it was among the top 10 reformers for the Doing Business Report 2007.
The Tanzania Investment Center (TIC), however, has announced that Tanzania in the past year had drawn 871 investment projects worth 7 trillion shillings (5.7 billion U.S. dollars) apart from creating 109,521 jobs.
The performance was described as the best annual performance since the establishment of the investment center in 1991.