Tanzania: Govt to Accelerate Pace of Formalising Cross-Border Trade

PUBLISHED ON May 17th, 2016

Tanzania: Govt to Accelerate Pace of Formalising Cross-Border Trade

THE government has promised to work on findings and recommendations given by private sector leaders to help speed up the necessary transformation to formalise informal cross border trade.

This was said by the Permanent Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Trade, Investment and Industry, Prof Adolph Mkenda, during a dialogue on ‘Challenges in Expanding Intra-Regional Trade and Investment Flows in the East African Community Common Market held in Dar es Salaam over the weekend.

“We owe future generations the obligation of building a strong common market as the tool for creating a more prosperous region using the multitude of resources that the region is endowed with,” he said in a speech read on his behalf by the ministry’s Assistant Director in the Department of Trade Integration, Ambroce Lugenge.

The seminar was organised by the Tanzania Private Sector Foundation (TPSF) and funded by Trade Mark East Africa (TMA). The objective was to raise awareness on the level of informal cross border trade as a major component of regional trade flows and promote its rapid formalisation and growth as a tool for strengthening the common market. The TMA Country Director, Dr Josephat Kweka, said his organisation is committed to support growth of trade in the region.

“We will continue to work with governments and business community for the interest of the region prosperity,” he said. Earlier, the TPSF Executive Director Godfrey Simbeye said informal cross border trade constitutes as high as 40 per cent of all trade flows between African countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.

He mentioned some of the reasons for informal cross border trade as an alternative employment opportunity in the rural sector in economies where the growth of industrial sector has remained relatively low; difficulties in accessibility to mainstream markets; cumbersome formal business registration procedures and high taxes and customs duties.

He said there is a need to ‘sift the gold from the sand’ and come up with policies that will assist the region’s informal sector formalize and engage in formal cross border trade and participate in the economy.

“Let us give ideas the committed governments can take up to change the current situation,” he said in his note read by the Foundation’s Director of Membership Services, Mr Louis Accaro.

Giving a vote of thanks on behalf of his colleagues from East African countries, the Finance Director of the Private Sector Foundation in Uganda, Francis Kisirinya, said a lot can be done through dialogues between private and public sectors. He thanked TMA for the support.

The seminar was attended by representatives of private sector foundations from Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda and Burundi. Also in attendance were government officials, and TMA Tanzania Country office among others.

Source: All Africa

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