The aim of the First FYP was to attract private and foreign investment in Tanzanian agriculture and industry. Emphasis was laid on developing the country's transport system and modernizing its harbours. Schemes for diversifying and improving such traditionally productive factories as sisal plants and food-processing canneries figured prominently. Nyerere calculated that the projects under the plan would require a capital expenditure of half a billion dollars. He openly stated that, given the country's limited financial reserves, more than half of the capital would have to come from outside Tanzania.
The planners who worked under Nyerere had calculated that the first FYP would achieve a 6.8 per cent annual GDP growth rate. They were to be disappointed. The figure reached was only 5.3 per cent. The principal reasons for the shortfall were:
• the rapid rise in population, which increased during the course of the plan by nearly a third from 10.7 million to 13.2 million, creating a demand for food and commodities that could not be met
• villagization, which disrupted the production and distribution of supplies of food and commodities.
• a drop in world prices, which lessened the value of such key Tanzanian exports as coffee, tobacco and sisal
• a shortfall in the amount of foreign aid received.
SOURCE M
Population growth in Tanzania 1960-85, from Population Division of the Department of economic and Social Affairs of the united Nations Secretariat, World Population Prospects: 2010, http://esa. un. org/wpp
World History
