Ugandan government has reiterated its commitment to revive Lake Victoria water transport operations between Uganda and Tanzania in order to lower transportation costs between the two countries. Ugandan Minister of State for Transport Mr Aggrey Bagiire said this after meeting the Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) Director General, Deusdedit Kakoko when the later paid a courtesy call at his office. According to a statement from Tanzania Ports Authority, the Ugandan minister said they were committed to raise the volumes going through the lake to twenty percent in the next two years by improving ship operations, port and rail infrastructures at Port Bell and the new port of Bukasa which will be built in Kampala. "It is a directive from Uganda higher authorities that people and goods need to move quickly and cheaply in order to reduce the costs of doing business," he said adding that implementation of this directive has started by holding technical meetings between the two ministries of Uganda and Tanzania and the Central Corridor Transit Transport Facilitation Agency (CCTTFA). The Minister called for activation of the rail route between Dar es Salaam and Mwanza. On his part, the TPA Director General said Dar es Salaam- Mwanza route has been revamped by increasing number of wagons and locomotives. He said the government of Tanzania has secured funds to construct a standard gauge rail system which is now on tender process. "Construction of the rail is expected to be completed in the next three years," he noted. He said, once...

Before South African President Jacob Zuma visited Kenya last week, expectations were high that a deal allowing freer travel would be struck. The expectations were dashed when President Zuma dithered, only pledging that matters immigration was a work in progress. Kenya's visa interests were not a completely lost cause as the joint communique captured South African "concessions" offering easier visa terms for elite categories of Kenyans. It, however, fell short of reciprocal balance given South Africans enjoy a visa-on-arrival regime while Kenyans endure steep hurdles in travelling to South Africa. The reason President Zuma gave for the equivocation is that terrorists and criminals would exploit the opportunity to gain entry into South Africa and wreak havoc there. In essence, law abiding Kenyans are collateral damage. This justification can be given benefit of doubt considering the reality of terrorists in Kenya. Incredulity can, however, be entertained. An important factor that might have impelled South Africa to prevaricate is that the country has policies and regulations focused on checking the influx of African economic refugees. Kenya is no exception. Allowing Kenyans no-holds-barred entry would have been received negatively by South African interest groups that have often expressed angst at other Africans, especially of lower classes. It would also have had a domino effect with other African countries pushing for similar deals. It is noteworthy that President Uhuru Kenyatta lobbied his counterpart on the visa issue at an open press briefing. It would appear that President Kenyatta was showing his being in sync...

Comesa Secretary-General Sindiso Ngwenya. PHOTO | FILE  IN SUMMARY The Comesa market is currently dominated by the European Union and China. China commands a 12 per cent share of imports into Comesa countries, while the US trails in fifth position, with only five per cent of the total value of imports into Comesa. The United States has given a $77 million five-year grant to the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa to help reduce cross-border risks to trade and to pave the way for increased foreign investment. The Comesa market is currently dominated by the European Union and China. The signing of the memorandum of understanding took place in Madagascar’s capital Antananarivo at Comesa’s 36th intergovernmental committee meeting, ahead of the Heads of State Summit that will take place from October 18-19. Comesa Secretary-General Sindiso Ngwenya signed the deal on behalf of his organisation, while Eric Schultz, the US ambassador to Zambia, who also doubles as the special representative to Comesa, and USAid deputy director for Kenya and East Africa Candace Buzzard, signed on behalf of the US government and USAid. The funding will go towards strengthening regional trade, investments and agricultural development programmes. This funding will help Comesa’s regional programmes under the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), such as Trading for Peace, Agriculture, Sanitary and Phytosanitary Standards, commodity trade in the bloc, gender, energy and climate change. Through this agreement, Comesa and USAid will work together to promote regional economic integration, reinforce institutional governance and accountability and...

Kenya wants the Common External Tariff on items like sugar, wheat, rice, leather and textiles revised to a level that East African Community members would be comfortable with and which would not be subject to exemptions. PHOTOS | FILE  IN SUMMARY Kenya is lobbying for strict enforcement of duties on sensitive products imported into the East African Community, saying frequent exemptions threaten the survival of local industries. “Kenya is striving to have the CET rates for sensitive items reviewed; the partner states are always requesting the Council of Ministers to grant them exemptions or stay of application,” Kenya’s Principal Secretary in charge of Trade Chris Kiptoo told The EastAfrican. Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda are also working on their positions. A team of experts from the EAC is expected to review the proposals for each country and reach a common position before the revised CET takes effect on July 1, 2017. Kenya is lobbying for strict enforcement of duties on sensitive products imported into the East African Community, saying frequent exemptions threaten the survival of local industries. Trade officials said the country wants the Common External Tariff on items like sugar, wheat, rice, leather and textiles revised to a level that members would be comfortable with and which would not be subject to exemptions. “Kenya is striving to have the CET rates for sensitive items reviewed; the partner states are always requesting the Council of Ministers to grant them exemptions or stay of application,” Kenya’s Principal Secretary in charge of...

The number of regional trade agreements has almost quadrupled in the past 25 years, from 70 in 1990 to around nearly 280 today. The collapse of the Doha round of trade talks in Nairobi in December has deflected energy to regional trade agreements. These agreements are great in helping rejuvenate global trade, which slowed as the economic recovery tapered in recent years and the Chinese economy decelerated. Africa is well positioned to engage regional trade agreements. Signed in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt, in June 2015, the Tripartite Free Trade Agreement (TFTA) brings the Common Market of Eastern and South Africa (COMESA), the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) into the continent’s largest free-trade zone covering 26 countries from Egypt to South Africa. The agreement aims to fuel the continued growth of intra-regional trade on the continent, which has skyrocketed from $2.3 billion in 1994 to $36 billion in 2014. Intra-Africa regional trade still accounts for just 25 percent of total exports for the sub-Saharan region, according to the Brookings Institute. By comparison, European and Asian intra-regional exports are at 70 percent and 50 percent respectively. Sub-Saharan Africa still has a distance to go. Residual effect of Trans-Pacific Partnership on global trade The Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement – once ratified – will bring together 12 economies in the Pacific Rim excluding China with the U.S. These countries account for 40 percent of the world’s gross domestic product and a third of its trade: U.S., Japan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Brunei, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico, Chile and Peru. The pact aims to deepen economic ties between...

EAC secretary general Amb Liberat Mfumukeko in Arusha, Tanzania, addresses the media on Monday /ANGWENYI GICHANA The East Africa Community secretariat aims to save more than US$6 million (Sh59.63 million) in the current financial year through the cost-cutting strategy it adopted earlier this year. EAC secretary general Liberat Mfumukeko says the bloc has saved $588,760 in travel expenditure alone since the measures were adopted in May – around the same time he took over from Richard SezIbera on April 25. “Since we instituted several reforms in the EAC organs and institutions aimed at reducing costs in the EAC projects and programmes, the implementation of these reforms is going on very well, and already some positive results are being received,” Mfumukeko said. He told a press conference at the EAC headquarters in Arusha on Monday that “it is no longer business as usual”. The reforms focus on cutting wastage, containing and reducing frequency of travels where EAC officials should spend half of their working days in Arusha. Twenty-five per cent of the meetings are held via video conference facility. “We have also reduced the number of days for our meetings to a maximum of four,” the secretary general said, highlighting the achievements in the last five years and priority areas for the next five years. Mfumukeko said the EAC operations passed the European Union Fiduciary Risk Assessment. “The assessment on the secretariat’s operations in five pillars namely: internal control system, accounting systems, independent external audit, procurement and sub-delegation met the internationally...

Uganda’s High Commissioner and Permanent Representative to UN-Habitat Angelina Wapakhabulo (left), Kenya’s Tourism Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala (centre) and Belisa Kariza, Rwanda Development Board Chief Tourism Officer show solidarity during the opening of the East Africa Tourism Expo at KICC, Nairobi. [Photo: Elvis Ogina/Standard]Tanzania has dealt Kenya another blow by distancing itself from the common visa launched between Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda. The common visa is meant to, among other things, enable the members states to jointly market their tourism as a single product. Tanzania also wants nothing to do with the joint marketing strategies pushed by Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda and will not participate in the East African tourism platform events being pushed for by the neighbours. The joint visa has been issued to 4,000 tourists who will be visiting the three countries, now dubbed ‘the coalition of the willing’. In a media briefing Wednesday, Tourism Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala said Tanzania was wary of competition from Kenya. “Tourists who will be moving between the three countries that form the coalition will now be using a common visa that will be charged at $100 (Sh10,122) instead of $150 (Sh15,183) that each country charged before,” Mr Balala said. “The coalition of the willing has also agreed to have a common East Africa stand at the world Travel Market to be held in London on November 7. The stand has been dubbed ‘borderless East Africa’, but Tanzania will not be part of it,” he added. However, Balala asserted that if the...

Armed men on Monday ambushed three Uganda-bound buses inside South Sudan, and stole passengers' cash and merchandise. They incinerated one of the buses. We condemn this barbaric act and the fear it is calculated to instill. From November 2015 to this week, four Ugandans have been killed and three injured in four ambushes on five buses and a rescue UPDF convoy. This is grotesque, particularly that these stated incidents exclude unreported cases in which Ugandans have been attacked, killed or injured. South Sudan relies heavily on Uganda and neighbouring countries for supply of food, construction materials and other merchandise. Put another way, the necessities of life. That makes it a cash-cow for the exporting countries. This is a healthy symbiotic relationship envisaged between neighbours and under the East African Community bloc, which we support as a driver of prosperity for the citizens. South Sudan is a newcomer to the community and must prove its accession is a dividend, not a problem, multiplier. The Monday raid, whereas bloodless as by reports so far, still projects the lawlessness and potential losses that our nationals plying the Juba route endure. Twenty-one people were reported killed in ambushes on roads in Yei, in the Central Equatoria State, on the weekend preceding waylaying of the Ugandan buses hours later in Eastern Equatoria State. No doubt, Juba and other South Sudan towns provide lucrative markets. But increasing insecurity is making them less attractive. Our earnings from exports there in one year to May 2016 was $290.8...

The new East African Community (EAC) secretary general, Mr Liberat Mfumukeko, has reiterated his determination to cut down expenditure in the regional organisation. He has so far managed to save substantially from travel expenses and he says he is now targeting procurement as another area in which the EAC can cut down cost immensely. The new EAC boss' dream is to save $6 million in the current financial year, which is commendable thing, given that the regional body's budget is largely dependent on donors. Being cost conscious would impress donors and they would for sure be more committed, for they would see that what they give is well spent. While austerity at the EAC secretariat is laudable, we hasten to add that it would have been more praiseworthy if this would be translated into more profitable EAC entailing people-centred undertakings. The regional body was established to serve as a vehicle to bring together East African people. In that regard, any initiative taken by the secretariat or other EAC organ should aim to ensure this goal is achieved. Therefore, as Mr Mfumukeko and his team at the secretariat work hard to run a cost conscious EAC, they should also focus their efforts to making the regional body effectively save this region's citizens. Making the EAC people-centred is the best way to ensure we have a strong and vibrant regional bloc. If the EAC citizen feel attached to their organisation, it won't require much effort wooing them to wholly support it. There...

Farmers in Zanzibar and manufacturers will sigh with relief after a pledge by TradeMark Africa to facilitate entry of their products to the East Africa regional market. The multi-donor funded trade agency pledged to help Zanzibar exports become competitive in the region and form part of Tanzania's exports to the East African Community (EAC) market. The TMA Country Director, Mr John Ulanga, made the promise to the Zanzibar Minister for Trade, Industry and Marketing, Ms Amina Salum Ally, who visited TMA offices in Dar es Salaam over the weekend. Mr Ulanga said TMA would work on the request from the Zanzibar government to help products from Isles get access to the regional market. She asked TMA to promote Zanzibar products to Tanzania Mainland and other East African countries. She said Zanzibar products must be consumed as products from Tanzania once they enter into East African and International markets. The TMA boss said his office would work on the matter and make sure Zanzibar participates in various trade and business activities in East Africa. This would entail among other things building capacity of entrepreneurs. Recently TMA offered 200bn/- to Tanzania Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture (TCCIA) and Zanzibar National Chamber of Commerce Industry and Agriculture (ZNCCIA) for building capacity among its people. We hail this new development as an important step in the right direction as it will help Zanzibar enjoy the benefit of the regional organisation by eventually make optimal use of opportunities availed in the regional market for...