Sadly, Valerie Leach who has been writing with great skill and in a remarkably all-embracing way on Business and the Economy has had to resign due to pressures of her other work as a Councillor on Camden Council. We now need to find someone to fill the gap.
For this issue, we have asked Paul Gooday to write about the first part of the last four months and James Pringle about the second part. Paul Gooday recently joined the Department of Business Innovation and Skills in the UK. He was brought up in Swaziland and South Africa and studied Economics at the University of London. He is keen to play a role in the development of Sub-Saharan economies.
James Pringle recently returned to the UK after a decade working in Tanzania, latterly in the media. He now works as a development analyst for a UK-based consultancy. James will be taking on a new role with TA, as Editorial Assistant. His primary function will be to coordinate the contributors’ sections, to lighten the load on the Editor.
Happily Roger Nellist has come aboard to handle Energy and Minerals, for which he is more than adequately qualified. He worked in Dar es Salaam in the Ministry of Water, Energy and Minerals between 1981 and 1986 – among other things assisting with the appraisal and commercialisation of the Songo Songo gas field, developing Tanzania’s Model Petroleum Production Sharing Agreement and participating as a member of the government team in negotiations with international oil companies. He has kept in close contact with Tanzania and its energy and mineral developments since then, visiting the country more than 40 times. He continued to advise the Tanzanian Government on investment policy – especially for the extractive industries – whilst working as Special Adviser in the Commonwealth Secretariat (1986-2000) and subsequently engaged on a number of programmes relating to Tanzania as part of DFiD’s growth and investment work (from 2001 until his retirement in 2012).
In October 2004 Roger received a special Presidential Award from President Mkapa in recognition of his contribution over two decades to the realisation of the Songo Songo gas-to-electricity project. In March 2013 he presented a paper to a joint session of the UK All Party Parliamentary Groups on Tanzania and Extractives on the role extractives can play in Tanzania’s future development.