LISTENING to economic discussion in the country and even when monitoring what goes on outside, one gets a feeling that it is skills that are being pursued above everything.

There is that supposition that, after skills are imparted the rest is guesswork – that is, whether youths become employable as many policy makers and industrialists are fond of saying or perhaps employ themselves by starting usable business unit, etc.

There was a time the International Labour Organisation was focusing on decent work, as the world battled horrendous forms of child labour, a theme that has now paled somewhat although we still see children selling peanuts or boiled eggs or even learning greasy work in garages instead of going to school.

There is free education but no schooling environment at family level, in which case children running away from home or growing up in the streets have to eke out a living one way or another, and no one can blame them.

Much the same goes for the emphasis on skills – that it is hard to know who to blame for failing to realise one’s goals or in fact not having any.

Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa recently graced an event related to the construction of a library, a conference hall and vocational classrooms at a seminary run by the northern diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT).

Over 600m/- was raised in cash and pledges at an event intended to raise 1.1bn/-, but the amount realised may have reflected the proper expectations of the audience –not their highest projections.

The PM stressed that investment in education was meant to build a strong, aware, reliant and respectful society expected to observe principles of accountability and innovation, with education expected to bring change.

One of the key issues at the moment is how to get the country doing what it can to put everyone to work, and without intense investment into industry and services it is hard to see how all that can come about.

What at least one major country is doing shows that the old pre-globalisation formula is being dusted by making it worthwhile to produce inside a country rather than importing.

It is unlikely that other countries will rush to copy and paste that but it appears to be catching up as no one wishes to have the youth betting while all usable produces are imported.

Let us just hope that conditions will improve for move investments in the local setting, as our external tariffs aren’t too low.

With a large market already now that we have crossed 60 million population mark, all we need is softening legislation on land ownership and citizenship and thus invite vast flows of funds to purchase urban housing, etc.

Those who get cash there will be in a better position to purchase rural land close to urban centres and, predictably, there will be few traditional villages left in half a century. Otherwise we shall import more while large groups of youths continue to languish in largely escapable misery.