Tanzania Business Environment and Competitiveness for Jobs DPO

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The development objective of the First Business Environment for Jobs Development Policy Operation (DPO) Program Project for Tanzania is to increase the job creation potential of the Tanzanian private sector by reducing the overall cost of doing business and by creating an enabling environment for selected labor-intensive industries. This first operation is for an amount of United States (U.S.) 80 million dollars equivalent, and has been prepared jointly with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which plans to provide parallel financing. The DPO series is built to support reforms in three policy areas: pillar one - making the regulatory environment (for business registration, licensing, trade, and taxation) more business friendly; pillar two - improving the functioning of factor markets (labor, land, and capital); and pillar three - establishing an enabling environment for competitive, job-creating industries (in particular for agribusiness and tourism). Any strategy to support employment creation by the private sector in Tanzania should be anchored on the need to eliminate or reduce barriers to growth for small and informal businesses, which represent approximately 90 percent of existing operators, and on fostering investments in labor-intensive sectors. The policy reforms supported under the DPO series will help remove critical business environment constraints in Tanzania and are complementary to other sector specific operations.