Ten years of steady economic growth on the back of a boom in mining and rising tourism has placed Tanzania among a small group of African countries, beloved of development aid donors. This year gross domestic product growth is expected to top 7 per cent, buttressed by support from donors worth nearly 50 per cent of the budget. But this is still short of what the country needs to pull the majority of its people out of desperate poverty. President Jakaya Kikwete, the former foreign minister, was elected two years ago. He has sought since to give Tanzania a prominent role in regional affairs, and has been involved in efforts to resolve the crisis in Zimbabwe. William Wallis, FT Africa editor, and Tom Burgis, FT journalist, interviewed Mr Kikwete in Paris, on his way back to Tanzania from the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York.

Financial Times: Tanzania’s economy is growing at about 7% and a little below that for the last ten years. But it’s generally perceived that this is not enough to begin to pull people out of poverty. How do you plan to reach the next step?