The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Uganda, Hon. Sam K. Kutesa, Tuesday officially launched the 1st Uganda – Democratic Republic of Congo Joint Business Forum at the Ministry Headquarters. The Forum under the theme “Promoting Bilateral Trade, Investment and Connectivity for Mutual Peace and Prosperity” is being co-organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives, Ministry of Finance, Planning and Development; in partnership with Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU), Trademark East Africa and KTA Advocate. While speaking to the members of the Press, the Minister informed the Meeting that Uganda and the DRC enjoy fraternal and excellent bilateral relations. This is evidenced by the high level exchange of visits including at the level of Heads of State, Ministers and Senior Government officials. The two countries have established cooperation frameworks including the Joint Permanent Commission which have enabled the two sisterly states to achieve common goals and objectives. He further noted that the Democratic Republic of Congo is one of the key export markets for Uganda’s exports. Total exports for 2018 stood at USD 531m, with formal trade standing at USD 221m (Two Hundred and Twenty One Million) while, informal trade currently standing at USD312 (Three Hundred and Twelve Million). The 1st Uganda – DRC Business Forum will be presided over by H.E. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, President of the Republic of Uganda and H.E. Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo, President of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The objective of the Joint Business Forum...

Kenya’s new Sh350 million world-class cruise ship terminal will be commissioned next month during the tourist arrivals peak season when luxury ships are expected to dock at Mombasa port. The terminal is expected to create 300 jobs directly, boosting local industries such as the transport sector, hotels, food providers and curio sellers. In an interview last week, Tourism and Wildlife Secretary Najib Balala, said the completion of the terminal —which is being constructed using a Sh250 million funding from the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) and another Sh100 million from Trade Mark East Africa (TMA) — will give a much-needed lift to the sector’s fortunes. Industry players are now gearing up for the cruise ship peak season which is set to bring good tidings to the country as the construction of the cruise terminal at the port currently stands at 95 percent complete. On Sunday, the Port of Mombasa received MS Albatros, the first cruise vessel for the season carrying 446 passengers and 346 crew members. It was sailing from Zanzibar. While in Mombasa, the tourists toured the city, Maasai Mara, Tsavo National Park and Shimba hills. The new terminal includes duty -free shops, restaurants, conference facilities and offices for key stakeholders in the industry. The practical handover expected to take place in the next two weeks. The completion comes in time for the cruise tourism during the festive December period. “We are pleased to have this call from Ms Albatros; it is the first passenger cruise ship of 2019 docking...

The east Africa region, the fastest growing sub region on African continent, needs to implement the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement to create jobs for 8.5 million youth in the sub region entering the job markets every year. “The struggles that we see today in terms of achieving growth and creating jobs for our youth could be something of the past if we actually work together to exploits the benefits of the free trade area agreement,” said Vera Songwe, UNECA Executive Director of UNECA. She made the statement this morning in Asmara, Eritrea addressing the 23rd meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee of Senior Officials and Experts (ICSOE). “We know because of the analysis that we do at the UNECA that the African Continental Free Trade agreement stands to deliver about $1.8 billion worth of additional revenue to the continent ad can create about 2 million jobs a year,” she said. The experts are gathered from the 14 countries found in the east Africa sub region namely, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, Madagascar, Tanzania, Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Rwanda, Seychelles and Somalia. The fastest growing The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) predicts that East Africa sub region will grow at 6.5% by 2020. “This is the fastest sub-region on the continent [Africa]. Today this east Africa region is growing at 6.4%. We expect it to grow at 6.5% by 2020. The overall continent is growing at only 3.4%,” she said, in her...

The Inter African Coffee Organisation (IACO) has joined forces with the Centre for Agriculture and Biosciences International (CABI) and the International Coffee Organization (ICO) to launch the Ksh.95 billion ($950 million) ‘Africa Coffee Facility’ (ACF) to boost Africa’s coffee industry and achieve a 40 percent increase in high-quality exports worth $5 billion a year. The ACF is projected to transform Africa’s coffee production – currently 10 percent of the global coffee market – into a vibrant and resilient industry again. Coffee is a primary source of income for more than 12 million households in Africa and contributes a significant proportion of tax income in a number of these countries. The largest annual export value of African countries is recorded by Ethiopia at $762.8m annually, followed by Uganda ($468.4m), Kenya ($229.5m) and Tanzania ($129.2m). Speaking at the event, Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri said, “We need to build the capacity of our smallholder producers as well as revamp our producer organizations, empower women and the youth through entrepreneurship development. This includes a value chain transformation from a subsistence to an entrepreneurial orientation among our farmers.” This year the Government of Kenya allocated 3 billion Kenya Shillings (equivalent to USD 30 million) towards supporting coffee producers. Dr. Fred Kawuma, Secretary General of the IACO, said, “Africa produces some of the highest-quality and much-loved coffee in the world but its contribution to the global coffee trade has declined significantly since the 1970s when nearly a third of all coffee was produced on the continent.”...

There are a lot of statistics and projections of hope about Africa. For example, over 50 per cent of Africans are aged below 20. The global average age is around 30 years. By 2025, it is forecast that the continent’s population will rise to 2.4 billion and will continue to grow to 4.2 billion, nearly four times its present size in the next 100 years. This will mean its share of the global population will increase from 17 per cent to 40 per cent. It is projected that the continent will change more in the next 100 years than it did in the previous 1,000 years. By 2050, 40 per cent of all workers in the world will be coming from Africa. The rate of urbanisation on the continent is so high and by 2025, the continent will have three megacities comprised of more than 10 million people each, with Nigeria’s Lagos projected to be the largest city on earth by 2075. I have picked these quick facts from a compilation done by organisers of Kusi Ideas Festival, launched by the Nation Media Group. The aim of the festival is to build a Pan-African ideas transaction market to capitalise on the opportunities and innovations available to Africa to win in the 21st Century. Supporting statistics are available from many other sources. Furthermore, Africa has about 60 per cent of all the arable land in the world. By 2016, the African Development Bank Group reported that about 30 per cent of...

East African countries are progressively improving their policy frameworks governing trade, but governments need to do more to improve the business environment as a whole, according to the second edition of the African Union Commission’s (AUC) economic report produced in collaboration with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Development Centre. Governments in the region are adopting a series of pro-trade reforms to reduce barriers to trade and improve the overall trade environment. In 2019, at the time of writing, most countries in the region had outperformed the sub-Saharan Africa average for trading across borders, says Africa’s Development Dynamics (AfDD) 2019 report released Tuesday. However, while some countries like Mauritius, Rwanda and Kenya outperform others in the Ease of Doing Business rankings overall, more countries in the region require additional work to improve the overall business climate. “Complex and burdensome business procedures in many countries undermine efforts to promote business linkages, cross-border firm networks and regional value chains,” the report says. It says regional integration is a contentious political process to manage and should be deployed tactfully to promote an environment conducive to transforming the economy’s productive structure. “Regional integration exposes businesses to outside influences, opportunities and competition. This can trigger resistance or hesitation among certain stakeholders that fear economic disruption.” It adds that regional integration initiatives also carry enormous potential for economic and social benefits to ordinary citizens and domestic private sector operators alike. I t says: “A tactful approach with carefully selected initiatives should be deployed as...

REGIONAL diplomatic corps now want East African Community (EAC) partner states to demonstrate political will in dealing with issues that hinder the growth of intra-trade. The envoys, representing their countries in Tanzania, observed yesterday that political will was crucial in removing obstacles that impede free trade among partner states. The ambassadors also called on EAC countries to review legal and regulatory frameworks that proved to be an Achilles heel to intratrade. “As diplomats, we need to push and advocate for political will among our countries and help identify the laws that are hindering free trade in the region,” explained Kenya’s High Commissioner to Tanzania, Mr Dan Kazungu, at a consultative dialogue on economic diplomacy as a tool for alternative trade dispute mechanisms towards enhanced intra-EAC trade and investment. The envoy challenged fellow diplomats to ‘walk the talk’, and breathe a new fresh lease of life into the ‘One People, One Destiny’ slogan by addressing the issues that continue to hamper the growth of trade in the region. “The European Union views us as their ideal model, we, therefore, have responsibilities beyond the countries that we are all representing and become proud East Africans,” he said. According to the East African Business Council (EABC), EAC intra-trade stands at 12 per cent. This was far from the 78 per cent achieved by the European Union (EU) and the 48 per cent registered by the Southern African Development Community (SADC). “Where are we getting it all wrong as a regional economic bloc, the...

IN implementing its ambitious massive investment development plan, the Tanzania Port Authority (TPA) through its Tanga office has officially started renovating and upgrading Tanga Port by dredging the entrance channel and the berth. The improvement at Tanga Port aims at turning the gateway into the highly competitive terminal, serving customers in the country, East African region and great Lakes region as the plan now is to have a 12-metre depth berth from the current five metres. Future plans will also involve construction of a passenger terminal and a modern Single Mooring Point (SPM) for oil cargo. Speaking to reporters in Tanga on Sunday after a board meeting, TPA Board Chairperson, Prof Ignas Rubaratuka and TPA Director General Deusdedit Kakoko said Tanga Port is a strategic terminal for the country's economy. China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) is implementing the project whose first phase that costs 170bn/- is expected to last for 12 months. Project implementation kicked off on October 04, 2019. According to Prof Rutabaruka, currently the terminal does not accommodate mega cargo ships as the entrance channel and the berth are shallow, a factor that compels cargo ships to anchor about 1.7 kilometres away (outer anchorage) from the berth. "Outer anchorage has so many disadvantages as it increases TPA's operational costs,a burden which is sometimes passed on to traders and later consumers," he said. From the outer anchorage, he said, cargo is then brought to the berth by budges and tug boats, spending much time handling a single cargo, including...

Tourism may be international or within the traveler's country. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as being limited to holiday activity only", as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure and not less than 24 hours, business and other purposes". Tourism can be domestic or international, and international tourism has both incoming and outgoing implications on a country's balance of payments. Tourism suffered as a result of a strong economic slowdown of the late-2000s recession, between the second half of 2008 and the end of 2009, and the outbreak of the H1N1 influenza virus, but slowly recovered. International tourism receipts (the travel item in the balance of payments) grew to US$1.03 trillion (€740 billion) in 2005, corresponding to an increase in real terms of 3.8 pc from 2010. International tourist arrivals surpassed the milestone of 1 billion tourists globally for the first time in 2012, emerging markets such as China, Russia, and Brazil had significantly increased their spending over the previous decade. The ITB Berlin is the world's leading tourism trade fair. Global tourism accounts for ca. 8 pc of global greenhouse gas emissions. The word tourist was used in 1772 and tourism in 1811.[12] It is formed from the word tour, which is derived from Old English turian, from Old French torner, from Latin tornare; 'to turn on a lathe,' which is itself from...

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