Burundi peace talks under the facilitation of former Tanzania president, Benjamine Mkapa are schedule to resume on July 12 in Arusha, Organisers said on Saturday. Mkapa said he is willing to meet Burundians who were not represented in the first dialogue. A communication Officer with the East African Community (EAC) and organizer of the talks, Richard Othieno said more than 70 politicians and civil society groups from Burundi were expected at the talks. He added that the 75 participants will include former heads of state,representatives of political parties, religious leaders, civil society organizations, women and youths and representatives of the Burundi Chamber of Commerce. “Different groups from Burundi have expressed their willingness of showing up and participating in the dialogue, and reports that some will skip the occasion are baseless and unfounded,” said Othieno. The two-day talks follow the completion of the first round which came to an end in May. The peace talks from the EAC come amidst reports that some delegates were expected to impede the crucial dialogue, aimed at finding a lasting solution to the political crisis in the tiny central African country. More than 500 people in Burundi have been killed and over 500, 000 people fled to neighboring countries, mostly Tanzania, Rwanda and the DRC, since the chaos started last year in the capital Bujumbura. Source: Africa News

Minister of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives has urged the Ugandan business community that has been conducting business in South Sudan to explore other market in region. While addressing journalists at the Uganda Media Center yesterday, Amelia Kyambadde said that the South Sudan market has a highly lucrative business destination; traders need to think twice for their sake of their lives when going there because of the risks. Fresh fighting erupted four days ago in the capital Juba between loyalists of President Salva Kiir and Riek Machar, the vice president. The two were to lead under a deal to end a two-year civil war that had started towards the end of 2013. Kyambadde said South Sudan became Uganda’s leading export destination in 2008 following the signing of the comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005 with the total exports both formal and informal peaking at US$1.18b (sh3.9 trillion) in 2008 However, due to the fighting that broke out in December 2013, sparking off a civil war in the world’s youngest nation, there was a steady decline in Uganda’s exports from US$414m (sh1.3 trillion) in 2013 to US$385m (sh1.2 trillion) in 2014 and US$353m (sh1.1 trillion) in 2015. Uganda’s leading exports to South Sudan, according to Kyambadde, are cereals, milling products, sugar, iron, cement, steel, and soft drinks, among others. “Government advises the Ugandan business community to explore other markets that were created through regional integration especially in the East African Community and the Common Market for East and Sothern Africa (COMESA) in the...

Arusha — East African businesses will tomorrow engage key agencies to facilitate trade in Tanzania. "The meeting aims at providing solutions to enhance business environment in Tanzania, hence increase intra-EAC trade," said the East African Business Council (EABC) chief executive officer, Ms Lilian Awinja, said. EABC, the East African Community Secretariat, Trademark East Africa and the Tanzania Private Sector Foundation will host a public-private dialogue (PPD) with key trade facilitation agencies. PPD is a structured, participatory, and inclusive approach to policymaking. It is directed at reforming governance and the business climate, especially where other policy institutions are underperforming. The business community will engage the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA), the Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS), the Tanzania Food and Drugs Authority (TFDA) and the Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) on trade issues, according to an EABC statement. The forum will bring together stakeholders from public and the private sectors to discuss major developments as well as address key challenges facing entrepreneurs across the EAC in conducting trade in Tanzania. Businesses will seeking an understanding of new developments with regard to the work of trade facilitation agencies and clarifications on issues affecting their businesses. Specifically, the key objectives of the forum is to provide an opportunity to TBS officials to interact with the EAC business community on various requirements regarding compliance with standards in Tanzania. It will also offer an opportunity for TRA officials to discuss with business executives on various tax requirements and compliance, particularly those that are applied to goods from...

Hotels in Nairobi are expected to reap big from the estimated 6,000 delegates attending the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development meeting which begins from Sunday to Friday next week. The 14th session of the UNCTAD will be a major boost to the recovering tourism sector, Tourism Cabinet secretary Najib Balala said yesterday. The sector has rebounded from a four-year slump to post a 12.1 per cent in the first quarter of the year, according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics data on June 30. Balala and his Foreign Affairs counterpart Amina Mohammed said they expect some of the delegates to visit other tourist attractions, especially the Masai Mara National Reserve where the annual historic wildebeest migration has started. “After the conference, we all migrate to Masai Mara to enjoy the wildebeest migration. Take advantage of your visit to sample other Kenyan tourism products,” Balala said during the handing over of the Kenyatta International Convention Centre, the venue for the global meet, to the UNCTAD secretariat. He reassured visitors of security and the country's ability to host global forums under her meetings, incentives, conferencing and events facilities. UNCTAD secretary general Mukhisa Kituyi said the forum will be used to address current global downturn in commodity markets. It will also be used to review and put across measures that will strengthen commodity production in commodity-dependent developing countries, Kituyi said. The move is expected to improve food security and export competitiveness in light of UNCTAD’s post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals, to...

The excitement of Nairobi hosting the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD 14) starting this Friday is catching up with the nation, delegates and other participants of the conference. The session that will bring together heads of state and government ministers and other prominent player from the business world, civil society and academia to tackle global trade and development issues is only a few days away. While the week-long conference will feature ministerial debates, high level round tables, thematic events, a world investment forum, a civil society forum and a youth forum, little is known of the latter event. It is laudable that for the first time in history, the youth will obtain the opportunity to deliberate and discuss on issues pertinent to them in a global platform. Of great concern to the millennial generation are topics identified by world leaders in September 2015 while adopting the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development namely education, more and better jobs and government accountability. The UNCTAD youth forum will provide the over 250 participants a chance in ‘shaping the world we want’ which is the theme of the forum. It is also important to note that the global youth leaders have been carefully selected after a rigorous selection process that involved thousands of applications from all over the world. This therefore means that they have the requisite ability and capacity in a bid to share their views with global leaders. The main conference will see the global leaders agree on concrete...

The military clash in South Sudan has hit a number of Kenya-based cargo firms, forcing them to suspend their operations to the world’s youngest nation. A day after the national carrier Kenya Airways announced cancellation of its flights to Juba, Astral Aviation and Siginon have both suspended their operations to South Sudan citing concerns over safety of their staff. Astral operates three weekly flights to Juba while Siginon has a number of trucks that transport cargo by road to South Sudan. Astral chief executive officer Sunjeev Gadhia said they cancelled operation on Sunday after the airport in Juba was closed but anticipated that they woud resume flights today depending on the security situation. “We had to suspend our cargo flights to Juba because of the ongoing war between the two factions that led to closure of the airport in Juba,” said Mr Gadhia. He said that they started evacuation of passengers from Juba to Nairobi on Tuesday. South Sudan envoy to Kenya Chol Ajongo said that the airport was reopened yesterday, allowing aircraft to fly in and out of the facility. Mr Gadhia noted that the war in South Sudan and the subsequent closure of the airport had created a backlog of 100 tonnes of cargo as of yesterday. The firm normally ferries 50 tonnes of cargo in a week. Meshack Kipturgo, the managing director of Siginon Group said shippers had started cancelling transportation of their goods to the war-torn State. “Customers who regularly send goods to South Sudan have...

A record 147 per cent growth in April exports has restored Uganda as a top market for Kenya’s industrial merchandise, official statistics show. Provisional data produced by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) indicates that monthly exports to Uganda grew by a record Sh11.43 billion in the month of April, translating to four-month performance of Sh23.5 billion. The national statistics agency has also revised February export figures to Uganda, from Sh21.9 million that it has been reporting up to last month to Sh3.51 billion. The upward revision also affects February exports to Tanzania which have been adjusted from Sh115.37 million reported last month to Sh2.08 billion. The January to April cumulative export to Uganda represents a 34 growth compared to the same period last year and overtakes Netherlands which topped the list in the first quarter of the year. Kenya’s exports to Netherlands dropped 27 per cent in the month of April, translating to a four-month performance of Sh15.37 billion. Last month, the KNBS caused uproar when it reported a 35 per cent drop in exports to Uganda in the first quarter of the year, ending the landlocked state’s dominance as Kenya’s top market for industrial merchandise. The latest data suggest that the UK may well be on its way to finish the year at its traditional position as Kenya’s second largest market for exports. READ: Uganda loses top slot as buyer of Kenya's exports on 35pc fall The UK which has just voted to pull itself out of...

Summary Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began his four-country trip to East Africa in Uganda on July 4 before heading to Kenya, Rwanda and Ethiopia. It was the first visit by a sitting Israeli prime minister to the region since 1987. In a bid to bolster Israeli-East African ties, the prime minister held talks with his counterparts on increasing cooperation on security and economic matters. Official comments professing mutual dependence aside, the trip is unlikely to yield huge benefits given Israel's relatively small size. Analysis Israel's ambitions in East Africa are modest, with trade remaining low as a result: Israeli exports to all of Africa in 2015 amounted to $1 billion, or just 2 percent of its total exports. Business ties are informal, in most cases offshoots of direct personal relationships. For example, Ugandan officials, including longtime President Yoweri Museveni, made frequent trips to Israel in recent years. During these visits, friendships were forged with powerful Israeli figures, including former Mossad official Rafi Eitan, who is an advocate for more Israeli investment in Uganda. Yet despite these signs of warm relations, neither country has a diplomatic mission in the other. Symbolically, though, Netanyahu's first destination, Uganda, holds great emotional resonance for Israelis — and, most notably, for the prime minister himself. His visit coincided with the 40th anniversary of the famous Entebbe raid, when Israeli Sayeret Matkal commandos freed 103 hostages held by Palestinian and Red Army Faction terrorists at the Entebbe International Airport. Lt. Col. Yonatan Netanyahu, commander of Sayeret Matkal,...

Seeking to address Kenya's concerns, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said India will work to reduce the trade imbalance with it and assured the African nation that the effort would be to strengthen its processes and enrich its resources. Addressing the joint meeting of Indian and Kenyan business leaders here just before winding up his two-day visit here, he also pitched for enhanced cooperation in the field of solar energy, which he described as the best way to fight global warming. Emphasising that enhanced bilateral economic ties would be a "win-win" situation, he said India was now the "most preferred destination" for investments as he highlighted the changes in the business environment effected in the country over the last two years since his government took office. "India is the largest trading partner of Kenya and second largest investor. We will be happy to reduce the trade imbalance and also enhance the level of business," Modi told the India-Kenya Business Forum meeting in presence of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta. "We have initiated the programme 'Make in India' to make India the global hub of manufacturing. You too have 'Make in Kenya'... It does not matter if you make in Kenya or make in India," he said. His comments assume significance as Kenya has been concerned about the huge imbalance of trade in favour of India. The bilateral trade stood at USD 4.2 billion in 2014-15. The major items of exports from India to Kenya are pharmaceuticals, machinery, steel products, power transmission...

By Zephania Ubwani Arusha — East African Community (EAC) officials say they are shocked by renewed fighting in South Sudan which until yesterday had claimed hundreds of lives. "We don't know exactly what is happening in Juba and not aware of what's going on," remarked an official of the Secretariat when reached for comment. Nevertheless, he said, the deteriorating security in the country which was recently admitted into the bloc was a setback to the EAC and efforts underway to integrate it into the community. He hinted that senior executives at the Arusha-based secretariat are likely to consult today in order to assess the situation which has raised deep concerns across the entire bloc and possibly issue a statement. "What's happening in South Sudan is not good at all and we hope both sides will lay down arms," he said on condition of anonymity, noting he was encouraged by the televised overtures made by President Salva Kiir and his Vice President Riek Machar on the weekend to end the clashes. He added that renewed fighting had come at a time when EAC was contemplating to send its team of officials to assess the level of readiness of the strife-torn country to integrate with EAC after its admission into EAC on March 2 and signing of an Accession Protocol by President Kiir in Dar es Salaam in April. A business consultant based in Arusha, Mr Simon Mapolu, said the current deadly clashes in South Sudan were enough reflection of the deep...