Donor Coordination Group pledges to aid SIDO projects
The Donor Coordination Group for Private Sector Development in Tanzania has pledged to continue the dialogue on how to best support the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) sector in the country.
The pledge was aired in Dar es Salaam when a delegation of eight from the group visited small Industries Development Organisation (SIDO) at the Dar es Salaam Industrial estate.
Among other reasons the goal of the visit was to familiarize themselves with programmes, services and activities undertaken by SIDO towards promoting and developing the SME sector.
The Donor group was composed of a host of diplomats from various embassies, Mikkel Klim-Embassy of Denmark, Nicholas Michael -Ireland, Albert Henda of Danida (Denmark), Jared Duitu -CIDA (Canada) Love Theodossiady of Sida (Sweden) and Andrea Autoleiu from Unido.
Other dignitaries included Owais Passay from the UN Administration Office in Dar and Rachel Folster from the Secretariat-Private Sector Growth and Trade, Dr Consolata Ishebabi and Joyce Meru of the Ministry of Industry and Trade Tanzania.
SIDO’s Director General Mike Laiser, listed some of their programmes as, incubation, value addition Programmes, Skills development Programmes and the One District One Product Strategy.
In the course of the trip the delegates visited a manufacturer of soap machines, Natural Star Product, food processor, Simba Brand Food Products and manufacturers of Wind Power Generators, Power Electronics.
Other enterprises visited include TEMSO, a manufacturer of engineering products such as wood cutting machines, wheelbarrows and galvanized sheet.
The Group also visited a Food Processing and Preservation Training Centre built in part with the support of UNIDO back in 2001 and an Agro processing Training Centre which is under construction with financial support from KOICA.