A Full Day of Business

WILL: This morning we said a short good-bye to our Maymester cohorts and thought about the many wonderful opportunities that we would have in the coming days as a smaller group. As the Maymester group began their journey to another city along Tanzania’s cost (which is 900 km sq., for those interested), we loaded up on the bus to meet with the Dar Es Salaam Port Authority. In our time talking with the port officials, it was brought to our attention that the Dar Port is one of the most important ports on the east cost, serving Tanzania as well as 6 land-locked countries with goods, foods, and supplies. One of the major themes that has been repeated and stressed over the past week has been the issue of infrastructure. This topic of discussion has many implications for the Dar Port as well as the many inhabitants of Tanzania and its neighboring countries. The major mode of transportation remains to be by rail, but a lack of developed railways and roadways makes it very difficult to transport goods effectively and to all of those who are in need. Once our discussion was concluded, we were able to take a tour of the port and see its many working and moving parts. For most of us, this is the first chance that we have had to see the immensity and scope of the daily activities of a port. After a very interesting meeting with the Port Authority, we were fortunate enough to meet with an investor in Dar es Salaam and the director of Hotel Paradise. He filled our scheduled time with stories of personal and financial struggle as well as triumph and great financial success. He mentioned the few downfalls of finding investors for Tanzanian projects. A few of these included government bureaucracy (time frame to get papers signed and moved) and infrastructure. Even with these problems, Mr. Nur was very confident of Tanzania’s investment potential – something that was proved by his business holdings and by the elegance of his building in which we met.

After what seemed like a very short meeting (it actually lasted nearly 2 hours), a few of us were filled with a desire to start a small development team within our group, too bad that we came to the realization that since we are college students we lack our own personal resources. One fact that I found very interesting is that many businesses use their own capital for reinvestment and don’t usually use lending and an investment strategy, this can be attributed to the government’s borrowing rate of nearly 13 percent and an even higher rate for businesses. Following the eye-opening meeting with Mr. Nur, over dinner we were met by two assistants to the director of the Ministry of Food Security. Over the course of our meal, we discussed the agriculture industry (which provides Tanzania with 50 percent of its GDP) and what needs to be done to provide a more efficient food production resource. Some things that were mentioned is that many Tanzanians produce only enough food for themselves and have very little to sell to the markets, or they sell too much to the market and don’t have enough to sustain themselves. As anyone can see, this becomes a far-reaching dilemma and has implications not only for individuals but for the country as a whole. One major implication for the agriculture of Tanzania is that farmers produce raw goods and sell/export them for a very low price to other countries such as India and China who package and distribute to world markets, and Tanzania then imports the finished product which has a much higher price than when it left. This process takes money out of Tanzania’s economy and puts money into another. The Food Security Ministry is pushing for ways to package and distribute goods within Tanzania, thus keeping resources inside the country. As those reading this blog can tell, we are participating in interesting discussions and learning important business lessons from those who face many different challenges that what businesses face back in the States. This continues to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience!

EDITOR: I'm still having problems with the internet connection blocking my attempts to upload photos. So in the interim, check out some pics I put up on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8431089@N07/