Examining The Role of Professional Knowledge-Intensive Business Services (P- KIBS) in implementing National (Local) Content Requirements (LCRs) in the Petroleum Industry in Tanzania:

Abstract

Legal services are part of the Knowledge-Intensive-Based Services’ (KIBS) sector. International experience places KIBS at the center of developing petroleum projects. Tanzania has adopted Local Content Policies (LCPs) as a means of gaining early participation for domestic industry and services in the supply chain of the emerging industry. However, success of LCPs is dependent upon capacity of domestic enterprises to supply the needs of the technical and capital-intensive industry. Apparently, the implementing frameworks under review rely heavily on command-and-control approaches to achieve the LCP goals.

International experience identifies lack of requisite experience as the major weakness impeding domestic sectors’ entry into the industry’s supply chain. Moreover, emerging from a weak private sector, policy makers as well as the targeted sector may lack capacity for adequate assessment of the private sector’s role within the dynamic changes imposed by the emerging industry. Focusing on legal services in Tanzania, the research adopted the law as a command theory to examine, how the regulatory framework reflects the role of the legal services relative to existing capacity. An evaluation and comparative analysis of the statutory frameworks reveals apparent lack of focus on capacity building and development of institutional frameworks. Unless there is a shift in the perceived role of the legal services sector, it may suffer from the adverse impact of the emerging industry, thereby failing to facilitate sustainable entrenchment of Local Content Requirements (LCRs).