Arusha/Kigali — Reconciliation talks between the warring parties in Burundi ended here yesterday with the facilitator, Retired President Benjamin Mkapa, admitting there were still some hurdles in the process. "There are disagreements on the modalities for implementation on key issues on the roadmap to peace," he said in a statement issued to journalists as the third round of the Inter-Burundian Dialogue session ended without much progress following the reported boycott of government representatives. Mr Mkapa said due to the hurdles impeding the talks, there was an imperative need to hold an extraordinary meeting of the Heads of State of the East African Community (EAC) "to address the impediment of the process". He noted that he would inform the mediator of the Burundi crisis, President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, and the current chairman of the EAC Summit, President John Magufuli, on the need to hold another extra-ordinary summit to discuss the political turmoil in the EAC partner state. Mr Mkapa added that although the participants of the just-ended talks had shown appreciation on the progress made so far by himself and the Ugandan Head of State, they have urged for the earliest involvement of the EAC leaders "to add impetus to the resolution of the crisis". The just-ended dialogue was attended by former Burundian heads of state Sylvester Ntibantunganya, Pierre Buyoya and Domicien Ndaizeye, leaders of various political parties and United Nations envoy on Burundi Jamal Benomar. The African Union (AU) was also represented. Speaking to reporters after the talks, the...

Three East African countries can now jointly market their tourism products on line with the launch of the first joint East African destination portal. Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) CEO Betty Radier joined other top tourism officials from Uganda and Rwanda in unveiling the platform at the Pearl of Africa Trade Expo held at the Serena Kampala in Uganda over the weekend. This is according to a KTB statement issued on Sunday. “The portal will be a shared platform for tourism trade operators to place their multi-country packages promoting Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda; and provide a new channel to reach regional and international audiences.” It would also allow access to tourism information on products, experiences, and destinations all on a single platform with the aim of enhancing availability of information in the region as well as accessibility to the tourism supply chain. “The launch of the portal comes in stride with East Africa striving to work together for the betterment of her people. If ever there was a better time for Uganda, Rwanda, and Kenya to come together it is now. Our economies are growing stronger and travel has been made easier due to the great improvements in our infrastructure,” says Radier. “The fact that member countries can easily access each other’s countries by road, rail, or even short distance flights should encourage more inter-country visits. Why travel the world when one has not explored the amazing beauty that East Africa as a whole has to offer?” she asked. The KTB...

The recent big fight over seats in the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) has led to questions over what is at stake. Answers to the question are important, not least because, fierce competition for the seats rages in almost all EALA member states. Kenyan EALA MP, Abubakar Zein Abubakar, told The Independent that the race in Nairobi is likely to be hot. "Right now you have not heard anything because the Kenyan parliament has not yet advertised for people to apply but once they do, you will see all the movements," he said. In 2012, the EALA race in Kenya was characterised by fierce competition. Up to 119 candidates applied for the five seats of the main Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party. These were shredded down to 63 and presented to parliament on the day of voting. The ODM was the majority party led by former Prime Minister Raila Odinga. The other parties were Party of National Unity (PNU), Kenya Africa National Union (KANU), National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) and Wiper and they all got one seat as ODM took up five seats. Abubakar, an ODM representative says it will be a different situation since the last elections, held in 2013 slightly changed the representation in the Kenyan parliament. He says this time, ODM will be entitled to five seats, The National Alliance (TNA) of Uhuru Kenyatta will have 3 seats, and United Republican Party (URP) of William Ruto will have 2 seats. The independents will not have a representative because...

Carmen Nibigira, the Coordinator at the East Africa Tourism Platform, has earlier today already been available for interaction to get her feedback to the EATP web portal launch of yesterday. The presentation was well received by the audience in the room and comments were exclusively positive, that another avenue to promoted ‘Destination East Africa‘ had been created and was now active and open for use. Said Carmen to this correspondent: ‘Let me start by registering my and our team’s sincere gratitude to regional governments and their respective tourism boards for the commitment to regional tourism development and marketing. This is the first time that Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda have committed and successfully executed joint promotional initiatives- Destination East Africa Portal joint Advertisement and Documentary. These promotional initiatives are timely, more so, given the prospects for tourism development in our region. They will enlighten our domestic and regional tourists on simplified travel procedures and help entice them to explore East Africa. It is our hope that they will cement our belief in regional tourism and help set the stage for further innovations in regional tourism marketing‘. She then continued to say that the East Africa Tourism Platform (EATP), as an organization was delighted to report that concerted efforts- as public and private stakeholders were fruitful. EATP steadfastly keeps working towards the creation of a single and competitive tourism destination. Key achievements have been made in the adoption of a Joint Tourism Marketing Committee with regional strategy, a single destination brand; that...

Kigali — Strained relations between Burundi and Rwanda continue to hurt some operations of the East African Community (EAC), including failure by officials of either side to attend a regional meeting on another state. Diplomatic sources say although the EAC Council of Ministers--the policy organ of the Community--intervened recently by directing that meetings continue to be held on rotational basis in different capitals as usual, the situation has not been back to normal. The EAC secretary general Liberat Mfumukeko acknowledged during his visit to the Rwanda capital early this week that when there are meetings of the Community in Kigali, delegates from Burundi do not attend and vice versa. The Community boss was quoted by the Rwanda media yesterday, saying that for the last one year the Council of Ministers has been trying to address the issue but without much success. It emerged, however, during talks between Ambassador Mfumukeko and the Rwanda minister responsible for EAC Affairs, Mr Francois Kanimba, that there had been some improvement over the relations between the two neighbouring states and that the opportunity should be used to fully normalise the relations. The minister said there was a time government officials in his country and Rwandans in general declined to travel to Burundi for security reasons and vice versa, though he has seen significant improvement in recent months. Relations between the two countries took a nose dive from the middle of 2015 at the height of violent protests in the Burundi capital over President Pierre Nkurunziza's...

Parties involved in the Bagamoyo mega project are working to complete a master plan and design for the Special Economic Zone area. The Chinese Ambassador to Tanzania, Dr Lu Youqing, said the Project will turn Bagamoyo into Shenzhen, a city in China which was transformed into a Special Economic Zone area. Dr Youqing noted that the Merchants Holdings International Company Limited (MHICL), which is implementing the Bagamoyo project, developed Shenzhen. He further said that Tanzania had attached great importance to the Bagamoyo project which is a joint project of Tanzania, China and Oman. "The government of Tanzania has attached great importance to the Bagamoyo Port and adjacent Industrial Park and it has listed it in the second five-year national development plan. "This is a mega project, it is a huge work to turn Bagamoyo into Shenzhen of Tanzania," he explained noting that the Chinese developer wanted to implement the project in phases. "With regard to the Port, the three parties have reached a general consensus on construction and operation of the Port. The Port consists of eight kilometres Port Zone and a logistics centre... there will be dredging water channels to the Port," he explained. The Ambassador said that the Chinese investor wanted the SEZ part of the project to be split into phases and the first phase to be developed will be 17 square km, but Tanzania wants to see the project developed as whole. "So, they are still discussing and I think finally, maybe they will first finish...

Tanzania, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are planning to construct a 700 km bridge in an effort to boost intra-Africa trade. DRC’s Katanga Province governor, Jean-Claude Kazembe stated that the bridge which is set to be constructed at Kasenga on the border between Congo and Zambia will cost $85 million (about Sh190 billion on the prevailing exchange rate). This bridge will make it easier to cross the Luapula River, which is a section of the River Congo. The Congo River is Africa’s second-longest river and forms part of the border between Zambia and the DRC. Data shows that goods destined for DRC and Zambia account for 35 percent and 24 percent respectively of all cargo in transit that pass via the Dar es Salaam Port, hence the need for three countries to foster their trade relations by embarking on joint projects to improve infrastructure. “So far, we have already held talks with the relevant ministry in Tanzania (the Ministry of Works, Communication and Transport) and they have shown a positive interest in the implementation of the bridge,” Mr Kazembe told journalists yesterday. According to the DHL Global Connectedness Index, Africa is still the world’s least connected continent when considering the ease of moving people, trade, information and finance. It is therefore important for more emphasis to be placed on trade partnerships among African countries to drive seamless intra-Africa trade. Current estimates indicate that trade volumes in sub-Saharan Africa will more than triple from 102.6 million tonnes in 2009...

Three East African countries can now jointly market their tourism products on line with the launch of the first joint East African destination portal. Kenya Tourism Board Chief Executive Officer Betty Radier joined other top tourism officials from Uganda and Rwanda in the unveiling the platform at the Pearl of Africa Trade Expo held at the Serena Kampala in Uganda over the weekend. The portal will be a shared platform for tourism trade operator to place their multi-country-packages promoting Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda; and provide a new channel to reach regional and international audiences. It will also allow access to tourism information on products, experiences and destinations, all on a single platform with the aim of enhancing availability of information in the region, as well as accessibility to the tourism supply chain. “The launch of the portal comes in stride with the East Africa striving to work together for the betterment of her people. If ever there was a better time for Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya to come together, it is now. Our economies are growing stronger and travel has been made easier due to the great improvements in our infrastructure,” said Radier. She added:“The fact that members’ countries can easily access each other’s countries by road, rail or even short distance flights should encourage more inter-country visits. Why travel the world when one has not explored the amazing beauty that East Africa as a whole has to offer?” KTB attended the expo aiming to strengthen Kenya’s ties with Uganda...

The United Kingdom has promised to strengthen trade and investment links with the East African Community Partner States for mutual benefit. UK High Commissioner to Tanzania, Ms Sarah Cooke, said that her country would remain an outward focused trade-based economy with strong partnerships with other countries and regional economic blocs even in the wake of Brexit. The high commissioner was speaking after she presented her credentials to the EAC Secretary General, Ambassador Liberat Mfumukeko, at the EAC Headquarters in Arusha. Ms Cooke said the UK would create new partnerships with the EAC aimed at promoting private sector-led economic growth for employment creation and poverty reduction in the East African region. The envoy disclosed that the UK was the biggest contributor to Trade- Mark East Africa (TMA), adding that the funding to TMA was being utilised to finance technical assistance to the EAC in sectors such as customs, trade, investment and video teleconferencing. On his side, Amb. Mfumukeko said his priorities over the next four years would be to promote the free movement of persons and labour as enshrined in the EAC Common Market Protocol; increase investment for job creation and improve agriculture to ensure food security and create employment for the youth in East Africa. Source: All Africa

EAS Africa offers friendly investment ground for German investors that assures high rate of return than any other developing region in the world. This was said by the Kenyan Foreign Affairs Minister Amina Mohamed at the Second German- African Business Summit organized by the East African Business Council (EABC) held in Nairobi last week. The meeting that attracted over 500 participants from business and politics provided opportunity to explore new markets, meet potential business partners and discussed opportunities and challenges on the business environment in Africa. “East Africa region is ready for and welcomes German investors to pursue investment opportunities to reap high rate of return than any other developing nation in the world,” she said. The EABC Chairman Mr Audace Ndayizeye said EABC has agreed to collaborate with the German African Business Association and other important German players as part of a ‘German – East African Advisory Forum’. In addition, the German African Business Association agreed to collaborate with EABC by jointly organizing the EAC – German Business Conference by end of the year. “The conference will not only look at financing for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMES) but also on which Foreign Direct Investment come from other countries to the EAC that Germany misses out” he said. On his part, the EABC Vice Chair Kenya, Ambassador Dennis Awori said, “Regional integration offers a larger market and common laws which reduce business cost of such as stocking in each different country” The panel discussions noted that regional integration successes...