Tanzania’s Growth Experience Following Economic Reforms: Comparative Perspectives with Vietnam
Damian Mulokozi Gabagambi

Abstract
Tanzania and Vietnam followed socialism ideology for decades, but both countries embarked on market reforms in the 1980s. This paper traces the major trends in economic transformation of Tanzania following reforms, and compares with the Vietnam experience with specific focus on agriculture and industry. It is demonstrated that socialism failed to generate the anticipated economic development mainly due to weaknesses in the instruments used to implement the ideology. The parastatal corporations became inefficient and could not produce enough goods to meet demand. While Tanzania approached economic reforms by abandoning agriculture in favour of private sector-led industrialization, Vietnam’s priority was on integrating the public and private sectors into an overall system. As a result the two countries have followed different economic trajectories with Vietnam performing far better than Tanzania. The paper recommends learning from history and from diverse experiences to guide Tanzania’s growth diagnostic work and strategies for scaling up growth.

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