Few would doubt that the Tanzanian economy has undergone major changes since the policy reforms
of the 1980s. The driving force behind these economic reforms was the increased openness of the
Tanzanian economy to globalisation. In the process, Tanzania has transformed from a low-growth
to a high-growth economy. For example, in recent years the economy’s growth rate has been
consistently above 7%, which, in combination with population growth of 2.7%, leaves a significant
margin of 4.3% or more for growth in income per capita. Economic growth implies accumulation: not
just the rate of accumulation but also the ways in which accumulation fuels the nature of productivity
and employment growth across and within the productive sectors of the economy. Therefore,
accumulation and structural change together propel the process of economic growth. It follows
that what matters for the successful transformation of an economy is not just the rate at which the
economy expands (its rate of growth), but also the character of the growth process – that is, the
direction in which the economy expands (Wuyts & Kilama, 2014). In particular, ‘growth-enhancing
structural change can be an important contributor to overall economic growth’ (McMillan et al.,
2013: p. 1). However, globalisation per se does not necessarily foster growth-enhancing structural
change. Nor does growth necessarily go hand in hand with successful economic transformation.
Whether it does so or not depends on the manner in which a country integrates within the global
economy, and whether or not this implies convergent or divergent patterns of productivity growth
and employment growth within and across the productive sectors of its economy (Timmer, 2009;
McMillan et al., 2013; Wuyts & Kilama, 2014).