Africa must find its own growth niche

When we think of the Chinese Dream and the African dream there is something that immediately comes to the mind. Both the dreams focus on the economic and social betterment of people.

The Chinese Dream as envisaged by President Xi Jinping talks of building a moderately prosperous society and realizing national rejuvenation. However, these broad priorities are different for individual African nations. Tanzania, for instance, has set a goal to be a middle-class country by 2025, a vision crafted in 1999. Though the journey since then has been an eventful one, with several bumps along the way, the Big Result Now launched last year by President Jakaya Kikwete is expected to provide the much-needed impetus for the Tanzanian dream. Under the BRN initiative each ministry will be expected to align its budget to the high-level initiatives of the government as defined within each Five-Year Development Plan, which in turn is targeted at moving the country toward its Vision 2025 goals.

The real lesson that African countries can, however, learn from the Chinese Dream is self-reliance and the confidence and vision needed to achieve their goals. It is important to also understand that China has managed to achieve its dreams in a short period of time to become the second-biggest economy in the world.

The author is a Tanzania-based journalist.

(China Daily Africa Weekly 04/18/2014 page11)