Speech by the President of the United Republic of Tanzania, His Excellency Benjamin William Mkapa, at an Official Dinner Hosted in his Honour by Honorable Goran Persson, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Sweden, Stockholm, 30th August, 1999

Prime Minister (and Madame) Persson;
Honourable Ministers;
Honourable Speaker of the Riksdag;
Honourable Members of Parliament;
Invited Guests;
Ladies and Gentlemen.

I should like to thank you, Mr. Prime Minister, for the kind words you have just spoken about us. As a true friend you have described us in the best possible light.

I thank you also, and the people of Sweden, for being such good hosts to us, and for your warm hospitality in this most beautiful country and the City of Stockholm. But above all I treasure the friendship, support and co-operation you have extended to us ever since the first Swedish missionaries came to the then Tanganyika in the earlier part of this ending century.

As we stand on the threshold of the new century, I am here to reaffirm our resolve to work with you, Mr. Prime Minister, and all our Swedish friends, to create a better tomorrow, and an even more rewarding relationship and partnership.

Mr. Prime Minister,
I am overpowered by a reassuring feeling every time I come to Sweden, and today is no exception. It's a feeling borne out of trust and faith. Trust in the solid foundation for friendship and co-operation built over the years; faith in the vision we share for the future of our relations.

Tanzania and Sweden have a unique partnership with which we in Tanzania are very happy, and are grateful for. It all began with the spiritual, the Christian calling that dispatched Swedish Missionaries to Tanzania. It then extended to relations and co-operation between political parties, and governments.

Today we are proud of a partnership whose far-reaching tentacles and networks touch all corners of Tanzania, and I think quite a bit of Sweden. The Church is there, and is most welcome. The Governments are there, and we treasure our relations at that level. The civil society is ever more active on both sides, and that gives us even greater hopes for people to people relations. The people of Sweden have made a great impact on our lives. You have in these years, as true friends, shared our ups and our downs, making life better for us. For, as the Swedish proverb says:

"Shared joy is double joy.
Shared sorrow is half sorrow".

But new times require new ideas. And I am glad that Sweden and Tanzania are in complete agreement on the need to raise our partnership to new heights from which we can survey the road ahead to the new millennium with greater confidence. When I talked with you this afternoon, and in the exchanges I have had with members of your Government, and from my dialogue with Sten Rylander, your Ambassador in Tanzania, I have reason to look ahead with confidence.

I feel I am understood, and I am trusted, and that to me is very important. I discern the political will to talk - in an open and frank manner - and I like that very much too. I see a convergence of views on how to make our partnership work better on the ground, to make it mature and dignified, a partnership in which our people and our government increasingly assume ownership and leadership of the development process that should rid us of the indignity of poverty and deprivation.

But there is a limit to what development co-operation can do on its own to make an indent on poverty. The history behind us is evidence enough of that. We do not now seek a partnership in which you do things for us, but one in which you are there for us, ready to do things with us in a collaborative effort to give Tanzania and its people an increasingly sustainable capacity to do more things on their own.

That is the same message I pass on to my people within Tanzania. For, I believe that leadership is not something that is done to people, like fixing their teeth. Leadership is unlocking people's potential to become better. And as Mahatma Gandhi said:

"If you give me rice, I will eat today;
If you teach me how to grow rice,
I'll eat everyday".

Together, we have worked, and continue to work, for sustainable development - sustainable not just in terms of protecting and preserving the natural resource base for future development and prosperity - but also political sustainability by nurturing a people-oriented transformation towards a free and democratic society; of cultural sustainability by protecting and respecting values and traditions; and of economic sustainability through plans conceived and rooted in the spirit of self-reliance and hard work.

Mr. Prime Minister,
As President my material needs are reasonably taken care of. But I derive little spiritual satisfaction from that because when I move around in Tanzania I see children who should be in school, but are not; I hear of women that die in childbirth, while they don't have to; I read statistics of children dying of diseases that a vaccination costing a few kroners could prevent but are not; and I am told of thousands of children born with the HIV virus while thousands of them are orphaned by the same disease.

On occasions such as this reflection engulfs me, and I am reminded of the words of the founding President of Tanzania, Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere. He said that as a young man he used to think that when he goes to heaven he will ask God why He let so many children die or suffer. But when Mwalimu became President he feared that the day he goes to heaven, God will ask him, "Julius, why did you let little children die?"

It is a fear I share. To me a higher quality of life is only spiritually satisfying if it is shared broadly, if it is inclusive in all aspects of human life, if it gives as many people as possible increased power over their lives and their future. Extreme poverty must be overcome; no one should ever have to go to bed on an empty stomach. Governments and the market economy must be responsive and effective, ensuring equal opportunities and participation to all - including women. The best measure of the effectiveness of aid to both giver and recipient must be how far and how soon it makes itself unnecessary.

Mr. Prime Minister,
Tanzania and Sweden have a long history of development co-operation. Over this long period we have together woken up to the realisation that development is a much more complex process than we thought at the beginning. It is not only a matter of the magnitude of aid, but also the context - political, economic, social, cultural, structural, and institutional - in which it is applied. We have had many successes in the social sector, in infrastructure, and in many other areas. We have learnt from them. We have also experienced setbacks; and we have also learnt from them. In Tanzania we are at once grateful for, and proud of, this partnership of learning, co-operation and growth.

This visit has given me the hope that with you as our partners, I can look forward to going to the gates of heaven one day and when asked by the Almighty, to be able to say truthfully: "We put the key to development, the key to a better life, in the hands of many people in Tanzania."
It is a prospect I cherish, and to which I would like to drink.
So I ask all of you present to rise and join me in a toast:

• To the continued good health of His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustav and Queen Silvia;

• To the continued good health of Prime Minister and Mrs. Persson;

• To peace and prosperity in Sweden;

• To the continued friendship and co-operation between Sweden and Tanzania.

Thank you.