Statistics released here last week indicate that FDI inflows to the six-nation bloc went down to $6.6 billion last year from $8.8 billion in 2016, a 25.3 per cent drop.

The situation is equally not rosy for intra-EAC investments during the same period. They plunged by 22.3 per cent from $254.1 million in 2016 to $197 million last year.

Existing business opportunities in the region aimed to counter the declining trend will be key during the third East African Business and Entrepreneurship Conference and Exhibition slated for Kampala, Uganda end of next month.

“The conference will showcase investment opportunities in the region,” said Lilian Awinja, the chief executive officer of the East African Business Council (EABC), which is organising the event.

Statistics issued by EABC and seen by The Citizen showed another worrying scenario – decline of combined exports from the region to the outside world by 9 per cent from $16.2 billion in 2016 to $14.3 billion last year.

No reasons were given by the Arusha-based business body on the reasons for the sharp fall of investments from abroad to the bloc.

Efforts to reach officials at the EAC Secretariat to comment on the same were not successful although one of them downplayed the statistics, saying the region was still attractive to foreign investments and was far from being blacklisted by traditional investors.

However, business analysts contacted said they were not surprised and cited a number of reasons, one of them being failure to market the region as a single investment destination.

“There is no marketing strategy for the region for potential investments,” lamented one trade analyst, noting that the investment policies, strategies and laws for the six partner states have not been harmonized.

He added that the EAC bloc is still subjected to the traditional impediments investors in Africa have been facing including little guarantee for return on investments due to high operating costs and taxation, expensive and often unreliable utilities and poor infrastructure.

“There are also policy impediments. Some countries such as South Sudan are still mired in civil war. Burundi had also been subjected to aid cut by traditional donors like the European Union due to political crisis,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Decline in intra-EAC investments has been partly attributed to restrictions by sister countries in the bloc to their fellow states as well as unnecessary competition.

EABC and other stakeholders will attempt to use digital options as a way to propel investments and trade in the region and unlock the deficiencies identified during the October 30th to 31st conference.

According to her, digital economy can fight the trade barriers, nurture entrepreneurship and attract more cross-border investments and FDIs into the region.

“It (digitalization) opens opportunities for millions of small and medium enterprises and companies to engage in cross-border trade, grow into multinational traders and create own global supply chains,” Ms Awinja said.

The exhibition, to be held alongside the plenary sessions, will showcase investment opportunities in the region as well as innovative market developments in the areas of energy, agribusiness, health, logistics and e-commerce.