Tanzania, Aug. 31 -- Dar es salaam. World Bank Regional Vice President Ndiame Diop says Tanzania must now connect public infrastructure with private investment, predictable regulation and employment, before trade and capital move to competing routes.

If Ndiame Diop were to write a book about Tanzania's economic transformation, he would call it "Now or Never."

The three-word title, offered at the end of an interview with The Citizen, captured the World Bank executive's central message: Tanzania has invested heavily in the foundations of growth, but the next test is to turn those assets into productive businesses, higher incomes and jobs.

Diop is the World Bank's Regional Vice President for Eastern and Southern Africa, overseeing almost ...