> European Union Charge d’ Affaires to Tanzania, Charles Stuart made the remarks on Thursday in Dar es Salaam during the commemoration of the 69th anniversary since the signing of the Schuman Declaration which marked the birth of the EU. The occasion was also attended by heads of diplomatic mission in the country, government officials, representatives from national and international institutions, as academic institutions, representatives of Non-governmental organizations and civil society organizations. He said that Tanzania and EU has been partnering in ensuring high quality livelihood, peace, stability and unity, good governance, educated and a learned society. He mentioned others as a competitive economy capable of producing sustainable growth and shared benefits. He said the above mentioned matters have been worked together since that partnership began. “Our trade and economic relations are maturing and are inspired by mutual interests. investment are coupled with transfer of knowledge, trade acknowledges that markets are growing in Africa not only as a source of raw materials but also trade and investment that pursue diversification which adds value and regional integration”, he noted. “We started as a small group in the past 69 years and we have grown and we are likely to continue growing. This is not about enlargement but merely consolidation of our commitment to one another. As we contemplate our own future, we think too of cooperating with our partners as they evolve too,” said Stuart. He added: “Europe and Africa have close historical, cultural and geographical ties. Here in Tanzania, you...

The East African Community (EAC) summons for extended support from Canada, one of the leading development partners to Africa. The community is specifically pressing for assistance in the infrastructure and trade sectors to help it gain its intergrated agenda. Mr. Liberat Mfumukeko, the secretary general said, "There is an urgent need to upscale the EAC-Canada relations as well as Canada's support". He made the call when he met the Canadian High Commissioner to Tanzania, Ms Pamela O'Donnell, who is aslo accredited to the EAC. The Envoy was briefed, during the meeting at the community headquarters, on the latest milestones recorded in the four intergration pillars. They aslo conferred on Canada's support to the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and the Burundi peace process. The meeting stressed the need for the two sides to deepen cooperatin to speed up the EAC regional intergration initiatives through speedy implementation of projects. Ms O'donnell reaffirmed her country's commitment to support the EAC, saying regional economic groupings were key in boosting regional and international trade. Canada joined a host of donor countries with full diplomatic representation at the Arusha-based EAC in 2017. When Ms O'Donnell predecessor presented his credentials, the two sides stressed cooperation in trade, agro-processing and investment. Although it trails, the European Union, Germany and the United States, Canada has featured in investment flows in gas, oil and minerals projects to EA. One of them is the Canadian-supported five year project aimed to push for law reforms in the oil and gas...

President Paul Kagame has urged residents of Rubavu and Rutsiro districts to consider the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as a market that needs to be tapped into. He also urged them to improve their operations promising them government support where necessary. Kagame made the request today as he met residents of Rubavu and Rutsiro districts, Western Province that convened at the football playground in Nyundo sector on the third day of the citizen outreach program. He was last in Rubavu during presidential campaigns in 2017. President Kagame told residents that they did what he wanted that they deserve what they want in return. “You wanted security and development. We must provide them, by all means, rooting on collaboration with citizens and all leaders understanding that it is their duty to serve citizens,” he said. President Kagame explained that both Rwanda and DRC can work together to make good use of available opportunities to further progress as long as they enjoy good relations. “Starting with opportunities of having neighbors, there is Goma town; there are other parts of that country and many people. When there is a presence of a large number of people, it is a market, you are also a market,” he addressed the crowd that welcomed him. “If there is cooperation, interchange of what is not available on one side and free movements of people, they gain improved benefits. But no one goes to neighbors without fixing own issues. That means it is our market in Rubavu...

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) isn’t simply a ‘Free Trade Agreement’; it’s about establishing a unified continental market with 1.2 billion potential customers and where the private sector is a major engine to make it happen. This was the tone from the discussions of the meeting held on 25 April 2019 in Arusha about how the East African Private sector including Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) could benefit from the AfCFTA. The one-day meeting, organized jointly between the East African Business Council (EABC) and the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), convened close to 40 key players from the region’s private sector. The office for Eastern Africa of ECA estimates large potential gains from the AfCFTA, including an increase in intra-African exports of Eastern Africa by nearly US$ 1 billion and job creation of 0.5 to 1.9 million. “Together African economies have a collective GDP of 2.5 trillion USD, making it the 8th largest economy in the world. That makes the continent much more attractive to investment, both from within and from outside the continent,” said Andrew Mold, Acting Director of ECA in Eastern Africa. “This should encourage business people to take advantage of AfCFTA and make the investments necessary to sustain economic growth and create employment”. Nick Nesbitt, Chairman of EABC, emphasized the importance of the continent having a clear vision to put an end to the fragmentation of the internal market. “I really applaud everybody who has involved in creating the AfCFTA because their vision is the...

A key component of Kenya’s foreign policy is predicated on developing strong bilateral agreements that open foreign markets to receive Kenyan farm produce. Indeed, only a few weeks ago, President Uhuru Kenyatta’s successful State visit to Mauritius saw the Indian ocean island country lift a ban on several Kenyan agricultural products that included avocado, baby carrots and broccoli. Even more recently, President Kenyatta’s trip to China secured access to export frozen avocado to the second largest economy in the world. While these bilateral agreements are commendable, their long-term viability will largely depend on Kenya’s ability to export competitively. Therefore, much effort should be directed towards policies that support a strong export strategy. Indeed, during President Museveni’s State visit to Kenya, Kenyans were shocked to find out that much our milk and eggs come from Uganda, which has a much lower cost of production. It therefore follows, that to be a strong exporting nation, we must address the issues that contribute to high cost of production in Kenya. To start with, the litany of taxes that have been loaded onto crucial items like animal feed raw materials, have proved to be a major obstacle to the development of the agriculture sector leading to meagre earnings. While it is understandable that government needs to raise much needed revenue to service our significant public debt, we must be careful that we don’t kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. Agriculture contributes to more than a third of our economy while also creating...

The Democratic Republic Congo and Zambia’s Kasumbalesa border post is one typical African border. Dusty, crowded and suffocating. Do not forget the sweltering heat, but not to the level of the humidity found in the coastal town of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. A man in his middle 20s is goading a goat for sale, many others balancing cargo on their heads and backs. They have to find their way amidst trucks and trailers driving at a snail's pace as they approach the clearance yard. From the Zambia side of the Chililabombwe district, located north of the capital Lusaka, the road to the border post is relatively well tarred until a potholed section gives way to a narrow, bumpy and dusty leg leading to the customs. Poor maintenance has worn out the tarmac but hawkers, money changers, water vendors and women selling food stuffs and the famous Congo Kitenge (coloured African fabric) earn their sustenance here. Source: The East African

It’s a great privilege to be here and above all a great privilege to have the opportunity for the last hour and a half to meet some of you and to learn from you. I think if there’s one theme that is central to the way that Britain thinks about itself in the world in the future, it’s the theme of humility, the theme of listening to other people, learning from people, working with other people. And I think this is particularly true when we come to probably one of the most difficult intractable and exciting problems in the world, which is the question of unlocking the potential of the African economies. When we talk about economies in Africa – and many of you will have been to these conferences all the time – there is a very strange sense that you lurch from an incredibly optimistic positive vision of where Africa’s going, to suddenly going to the absolute opposite of people being very, very gloomy. And I don’t want to repeat the cycle, but clearly in that tension between these two principles, between the incredible potential of Africa and people’s sense of frustrations, is something there in the centre of this problem which needs to be unlocked. And part of that problem is the question of how you unlock finance and how you unlock money in the centre of those economies. The big picture I don’t want to bore you with because you have heard these ten thousand times...

The Prime Minister Dr Ruhakana Rugunda has said the closure of Rwanda’s border with Uganda is being resolved by both Presidents. Rugunda says that leaders at the regional level are also involved in resolving the matter. Rugunda was on Thursday speaking at the launch of the 2019 NRM Manifesto week at the Media Centre. Rwanda announced the closure of the Gatuna border post, to allow for the completion of the one-stop border post, which has been delayed for two years. The Rwanda Foreign Affairs Minister Richard Sezibeera accused Uganda of holding in its prisons Rwandan nationals and torturing some. Rwanda went as far as stopping its nationals from crossing into Uganda. Recently, the Private Sector foundation expressed worry saying the continued closure could cripple Uganda’s manufacturing sector since Rwanda is one of Uganda’s trade destination in East Africa. Rugunda admitted a decline in trade but said this was a temporary matter that is going to be resolved. Source: Business Focus

Kenya on Wednesday called on African countries to embrace mutual recognition agreements for product standards to help spur intra-Africa trade. Betty Maina, principal secretary in the ministry of trade, industry and cooperatives, told an international standards forum in Nairobi that lack of harmonized standards constitute huge non tariff barriers to cross border trade. “Mutually accepted standards for products and services across Africa will reduce the need for duplication of testing when importing and exporting and thus greatly facilitate intra-Africa trade,” Maina said during the 34th International Organization of Standardization (ISO) Committee on Conformity Assessment (CASCO) plenary meeting. She told a two-day event that brought together over 130 delegates representing the ISO member states that mutually accepted standards will help make conformity assessment activities as uniform as possible across industries and the world. Maina noted that conformity assessment plays a vital role in the Kenyan economy because it involves a set of processes that show the product, service or system meets the requirements of a standard. “It provides a tool for managing compliance and providing an objective and defensible means to implement standards thus enforcing national health, safety and environmental legislation,” she added. The Kenyan official noted that on the basis of standards, the East African Community (EAC) has an agreement of mutual recognition of certification marks. Eddy Njoroge, president-elect of ISO, said that the world is getting widely and deeply interconnected making it intimately interdependent, at an alarmingly rapid rate. “As a consequence, standards and conformity assessment have become not...

Uganda’s economy is expected to grow 6.3 per cent in the financial year starting in July, International Monetary Fund (IMF) said, the same pace predicted for this year, as delays to oil production and domestic and regional political tensions drag on prospects. The country’s central bank has said the economy needs to expand by at least seven per cent a year in order to provide jobs as its young population enters the workforce. Uganda’s next financial year runs from July 2019 to June 2020. In its latest assessment of Uganda’s economy, IMF said business sentiment remained strong amid favourable monetary policy conditions, and that public infrastructure investments could help push growth to seven per cent in the medium term. “The main risks to the outlook are unfavourable weather conditions, domestic and regional political tensions, and further delays in the start of oil production,” IMF said. Uganda is due to hold its next presidential elections in 2021. President Yoweri Museveni, 74, is likely to face off with pop-star-turned lawmaker Bobi Wine, 37. Security forces have been using tear gas and water cannon to break up rallies by Wine and other Museveni opponents as authorities move to blunt their momentum ahead of the poll. Domestic tensions have been joined by regional worries. In February, Rwanda begun blocking Ugandan goods from entering its territory while also stopping its nationals from crossing into Uganda. Source: Media Max