Ministry's market information systems network in offing

LOCAL agriculturalists and manufacturers in the country will now be accessing information about prices and get to know reliable markets for their products with ease and on time. This follows plans by the Ministry of Indusry and Trade of designing and putting in place an integrated market information systems for them. A Senior Trade Officer with the Ministry said last week in Dar es Salaam that, “an ICT consulting company by the name of Data Works Associates Ltd has been tasked by the ministry to prepare a comprehensive information system database to which all the information will be accessed”. Wilfred Trases Kahwa said in an exclusive interview with the writer of this blog that, “the move will enable industry stakeholders to access on timely and accurate market information from within and outside the country which would enable them to know the current prices in circulation and market demand for their products”. According to him, This is a broad database which will contain big volume of the up-to-date information about agricultural and industrial products so that people will be accessing not only information about prices and markets, but also the availability of business opportunities. Contrary to what is currently happening, farmers and industrialists in the country do encounter some difficulties of getting little or insufficient information about prices and markets for their local products and this is because of the fact that, most of these are prepared manually. He said the work will be done in collaboration with the world Bank a brain behind the move, who after carried a research on Diagnostic Trade Integrated Study (DTIS) in 2003 with objective of assessing Tanzania whether it's competitive internationally in terms of exports, found it to be extremely incapable The World Bank outlined basic reason is that Tanzania entirely depends on traditional exports whereas non-traditional exports are not up-to-date. It also found that the available market and price information indices for Tanzanian agricultural and industrial goods were insufficient and shallow. Due to this, the World Bank therefore suggested that Tanzania must look for the means how it can collect and keep its local market information for heir products and put them in place for easier access. In view of this, the Ministry of Trade and Industry joined hands with the World Bank to start working for the comprehensive market database information system. Describing the importance of the whole system, he said that, the system intended to be created will help rural people especially farmers to know where to supply agricultural products and the level of prices, likewise farmers will be informed on their availability of farm inputs and their prices. The Ministry is also looking for the possibility of establishing broader markets which will be linked to district councils in the country where it will be easy to obtain first hand information on the supply of agricultural products. Internet services, notice boards in district councils, newspapers and mobile text messages are some of the mass media means through which the market information will be disseminated under the system intended in order to reach all people and key stakeholders. Having precise market information database, this would facilitate in discovering untapped internal as well as external potentials in the East African Community, AGOA and Asian markets. The system will further improve the flow of information to traders, businesses and farmers and facilitate both domestic and international trade. The network will enable them get connected and linked with global partners for the sake of acquiring information about market products and their prices. Analyzing the importance of this market information network he further noted that, it would provide accurate. accessible, convertible and timely demand driven market information which would be disseminated through into a broader elaborate and convertible systems that will integrate further Tanzania trade dealings into global trading systems through enhanced exports. When contacted for comments, an official from the World Bank Tanzania office based in Dar es Salaam Dr. Jesephat Kweka said his institution started to support the program in 2003 in order to complement government's efforts in enhancing market potentials for the locally produced products as one of the strategy in poverty alleviation. Therefore, In view of this, the World Bank official noted that an effective and efficient market information system is an important tool for attaining a real economic development in a country like Tanzania.