A Study On The Role Of Dares Salaam Port On Economic Growth Of Tanzania

Over decades,Dar es Salaam port has been greatly contributing to national income like other sectors.Port play a virtue role in economic growth particularly for new job opportunities,productivity,export,as well as an engine for trade development and other economic activities.However,Dar es Salaam port act as important hub for import and export of goods,where by six landlocked countries has been importing their goods through Dar es Salaam port.In addition,port act as a gate way for other means of transport including road,and railway.Port operations has been showing the positive trend.Despite that Dar es Salaam port has been improving and various reforms have been implemented for the development of port but in the region Dar es Salaam port are lagging behind in comparative with other port in the same region.This paper empirically investigates the role of port in Tanzania economy.This research particularly examines the Container throughput,Cargo throughput,Capital,Foreign Direct Investment,Berth throughput and labor in Tanzania economy.The study employs secondary time series data on the sample of one port for the period of 20 years from 2000-2019 to examine the role of Dar es Salaam port in Tanzania economy.The study adopted the Cob Douglas function and employed Multiple regression Model as the main estimation technique with the help STATA software.The empirical results of linear regression results show that container throughput,labor and capital are significant for economic growth.However,the finding reveals that cargo throughput,Foreign Direct Investment,berth throughput is insignificant.The coefficients of Container throughput,cargo throughput,Foreign Direct Investment,berth throughput and labor variables are positive which implies that these variables influence economic growth.The results indicate that capital have negative coefficient.On the basis of the empirical findings,this study contributes to many policy implications.These policy implications involve creating favourable business environment for the sustainable development of port operations which include infrastructure improvement,strengthening port services providers as well as human capital development that will enhance port efficiency hence economic growth.However,this study suggests that the government should establish modern port infrastructure so that to increase contribution of port in economic growth.Furthermore,the government should continue to establish strong institution frameworks to simplify clearing and forwarding procedures and improve of port service hence economic growth.This study suggests that future studies on the role of the Dar es Salaam port on economic growth should considered other variables that have not included in this study and sectors way contributions of the port.