DAR ES SALAAM, March 2 (Xinhua) -- The government of Tanzania on Friday requested a 150-million-U.S.-dollar loan from the World Bank to finance projects aimed at boosting economic growth and improving public service delivery in the east African nation.

Philip Mpango, the Minister for Finance and Planning, announced the loan application during talks in Dar es Salaam with the visiting World Bank Group Senior Director for Macroeconomics, Trade and Investment Global Practice, Felipe Jaramillo.

The loan application was still in its initial stages, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement at the end of the talks.

Mpango said the Tanzanian economy has been growing at a steady pace of around 6-7 percent per annum, enabling the government to continue providing social services and invest in various development projects, said the statement.

"The government is determined ... to invest in various infrastructure projects such as roads, railways, electricity and airports," said the statement.

Mpango said despite achieving rapid economic growth over the past decade, Tanzania still faces a number of key challenges, including high levels of youth unemployment, poverty and slow growth of the agriculture sector, which employs around 70 percent of the population.

Jaramillo, the World Bank senior official, commended President John Magufuli's government for pursuing sound macroeconomic policies, fighting corruption, cutting wasteful public spending and improving domestic revenue collections.

He advised the government to step up investments in human resource development and public infrastructure in order to build a sustainable economy.

Jaramillo also urged the government to improve the business climate to woo more foreign direct investment inflows into the country.

The World Bank said in November last year that Tanzania's gross domestic product (GDP) growth was expected to slow in 2017, hurt by cuts in government spending and a private sector slowdown.

The World Bank forecast Tanzania's full-year GDP growth at 6.6 percent versus the government's 2017 revised growth target of 7 percent.