NAIROBI (Xinhua) -- East African countries have resolved to advance regional tourism cooperation to help unlock potential in the region. UN World Tourism Organisation (UN WTO) said in a statement received on Wednesday following the conclusion of the three-day meeting in Kenya’s coastal city of Mombasa that ministers and representatives from East Africa and the Vanilla Islands also outlined the East African tourism agenda. "The Agenda will include agreements on regional priorities and concrete actions for cooperation," said the statement. In an effort to unlock the tourism potential of East Africa, the first UNWTO East Africa Tourism Development Forum gathered regional tourism leaders and stakeholders to identify opportunities to maximize sustainable tourism development through regional collaboration. Kenya’s Deputy President William Ruto, who officially opened the conference last Friday, said tourism is a critical component of the East African economy and an important part of the region’s common destiny. "Our biggest challenge is to work together to improve every aspect of the experience we offer to our visitors, from their arrival at the airport, their movement within and across our countries, the accommodation and facilities that we offer, and the affordability across all income brackets," he said. UNWTO Secretary-General Taleb Rifai said the UN tourism agency maintains great confidence in the East African Community’s ability to position itself as a leading tourism destination, by delivering one compelling, highly competitive offering. "I wish to welcome the recent introduction of the East Africa Tourist Visa, which allows travel between Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda,...

Trade between East Africa and China is expected to boom over the next five years despite a slowdown in the world's second largest economy, IHS said on Wednesday. Trade between East Africa and China is expected to increase by 91% by 2020, according Krispen Atkinson, principal analyst at IHS Maritime & Trade. "It's all around manufactured goods. East Africa is becoming a new hub for the Chinese," he said. IHS's projections came as the Chinese market experienced extreme market volatility since a huge debt-fuelled rally, which saw the market rise 150% in 12 months, collapse in mid-June. The Chinese leadership has made public its commitment to develop infrastructure and to promote regional integration in East Africa, according to Atkinson. The highest growth areas are expected to incorporate Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. IHS risk analyst, Natznet Tesfay, foresees that China's relationship with East Africa will change in the coming years. According to Tesfay the current focus is on importing raw materials and exporting manufactured goods. But, Tesfay added, Chinese investments in regional interconnectivity will enable it to take advantage of comparatively lower operational costs. Another spin-off will include the increased capacity of onshore manufacturing activity in the region, Tesfay said. Trade from China and Southeast Asia to North America and Europe is also expected to boom in the next five years, according to the analysis. Atkinson said, however, that the increases would not be the double-digit rises seen before the 2008 global economic crisis. "However, an increase of over 30%...

Nairobi - Power lines connecting the east African states of Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya and Ethiopia are expected to be completed within the next three years, helping improve supplies and power trading, a senior Kenyan official said on Thursday. Power shortages are common across Africa and businesses often complain that poor or erratic supplies deter more investors and push up prices of local products, as many firms rely on costly generators. Linking up national grids would provide a bigger pool of resources and mean one state can tap idle supplies in another. A high voltage line between Ethiopia and Kenya will be ready in 2017, a Kenya-Uganda link will be complete by the end of 2016, and a Kenya-Tanzania connection will be working in 2018, said Joseph Njoroge, principal secretary at Kenya's Energy and Petroleum Ministry. The Kenya-Ethiopia link will be a 500 kilovolt (kV) line, while the lines to Uganda and Tanzania will be 400 kV. The line to Uganda would then connect Rwanda and Burundi. All the states, except for Ethiopia, are part of the East African Community trade bloc. “In another two to three years, we should be having interconnections of Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania,” Njoroge told a regional power conference. “The regional power interconnection project is a very critical solution,” he said. Kenya, which relies heavily on hydro power, geothermal and other renewables, aims to expand installed capacity to 6 700 mega watts (MW) by 2017, from about 2 500 MW currently, and cut...

The suspense over the much-awaited decision on another 10-year extension of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) — often called the United States' General System of Preferences allowing duty-free imports — for African exporting nations is finally over with President Barack Obama recently signing into law the AGOA's extension for an additional decade. The AGOA bill was passed with overwhelming bipartisan support during a vote on June 11, 2015. But behind the scenes a cross-section of stakeholders — including African governments, the African Union, the African Diplomatic Corps and members of the U.S. and African private sectors — impressed upon U.S. lawmakers the significance of AGOA and its critical role in strengthening commercial and economic relations between the United States and the nations of Africa. President Obama, before his visit to Kenya and Ethiopia, said, "AGOA will be central to our efforts to boost the trade and investment that supports hundreds of thousands of jobs both in Africa and the United States, creating opportunities for all of us." Importers of African textiles and apparel at the TexWorld USA show in late July in New York City were pleased with AGOA's renewal, which they said created a "win-win situation" for both the U.S. importers and sub-Saharan African shippers. Mary Marino, the North American director of Cotton Made in Africa (CMiA), was enthusiastic about African exports of textiles and apparel. She expected cotton exports from Africa to grow following the AGOA's renewal. "We at the CMiA promote sustainable cotton which is...

In his speech in Costa Rica during his current official visit to Central America, WTO Director General, Roberto Azevêdo, talked about the importance of the early ratification of the Trade Facilitation Agreement and the recent expansion of the Information Technology Agreement as a good inspiration for a successful Nairobi Ministerial Conference in December.. Source: WTO

Trade Mark East Africa has received the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply certification, becoming the first East Africa organisation to receive the accreditation. Globally, only 128 companies hold the certification given for the highest possible international standards in procurement and supply chain policies and procedures. West African based Africa Development Bank, is the only organisation in Africa with a similar accreditation, making Trade Mark the second. The certification came after a nine month evaluation which commenced last September and was concluded in May. TMA chief executive Frank Matsaert said the organisation will be expected to heighten transparency in its procurement and supply processes as required by the accreditation. He said the regional body currently handles a laarger budget and serves a wider regional population compared to five years ago. “When we began, our staff consisted of only two people. Now I have a team of more than 150 that is handling a budget of $300 million (Sh31 billion),” he said yesterday in Nairobi. He spoke when TMA received the certificate from CIPS Africa managing director Andre Coetzee in Nairobi. Coetzee said transparent and efficient procurement processes will seal bribery and corruption loopholes. “This brings value to those doing business especially the small and medium enterprises.” He said the world loses over a trillion dollars to corruption as a result of poor procurement processes with Africa contributing a significant amount. Source: The Star

A new proposed six lane highway project, connecting the port city of Mombasa to the outskirts of the greater Mombasa metropolitan area in Mariakani – some 40 kilometres enroute the main highway to Nairobi – will cost 22 billion Kenya Shillings - the amount likely to rise however by the time of completion. This new section will cover about 12 kilometers, which are among the most congested and jam-prone in the entire country. It has been a cause for constant complaints by motorists which in the past have been stuck for more than 10 hours without moving an inch. This being the only main exit route from the coast to the national parks and game reserves inland, like the Sagalla Hills, the Taita Hills Game Reserve, Tsavo East, Tsavo West and Amboseli, traffic jams impact severely on safari itineraries for tourists, and the new road, when complete in approximately in three years’ time, will bring substantial relief through shorter transit times. The overall project will also reportedly include a link from the international airport to the new highway and a dual carriage expansion of the current highway to Mariakani, as well as selected sections further along the Mombasa to Nairobi highway. This is the second major road project at the Kenya Coast announced in the recent past, with a bypass from the international airport and the Nairobi to Mombasa highway to the south coast, now under construction. The road link from Mombasa to Nairobi and on to the hinterland countries...

China’s trade will continue to increase by more than 5 percent per year between 2015 and 2020 despite recent setbacks caused by its marked economic slowdown, the World Trade Service of IHS Maritime & Trade forecasts. One new trend is the move towards larger container ships to streamline the supply chain. Trade routes from China to Africa are expected to see a marked increase over the next five years, with the highest growth expected to be seen from the East African to China route, incorporating Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. “Trade between East Africa and China is expected to increase by 91 percent by 2020,” said Krispen Atkinson, principal analyst at IHS Maritime & Trade. “It’s all around manufactured goods. East Africa is becoming a new hub for the Chinese.” Chinese leadership has publicly announced its commitment to develop infrastructure and promote regional integration in East Africa. “In the coming years, China’s relationship with East Africa will change,” said Natznet Tesfay, head of sub-Saharan Africa analysis at IHS County Risk. “Right now, the focus is on importing raw materials and exporting manufactured goods. But, Chinese investments in enhancing regional interconnectivity will enable it to take advantage of comparatively lower operational costs and to onshore manufacturing activity in East Africa.” The four alliances that dominate east-west trade are pushing the trend towards container ships capable of carrying 20,000 boxes (20 foot equivalent units), in their quest to reduce unit costs with ever more efficient vessels. Current container ships hold around 13,000...

Regional integration and cooperation is the way forward in Africa as there are many regional externalities that can only be addressed through regional cooperation. Regional integration is also good politics as trade-creating exchange increases the opportunity cost of conflict. The Tripartite FTA (TFTA) and the proposed Continental FTA (CFTA) are the latest African initiatives towards regional cooperation. To succeed, these have to confront a very uneven distribution of resources that have sharpened the trade-off between the benefits of common policies needed to tackle cross-border externalities and their costs which are heightened by the sharp differences in policy preferences across members. Abandoning the linear model of integration and integrating in small groups should help. Following the implementation of the Economic Community of West African States’ (ECOWAS) common external tariff (CET) in January 2015, this June saw the launch of the Tripartite Free Trade Area among 26 countries, accounting for over half of Africa’s GDP and, with 632 million people, 56 percent of the continental population. A Continental FTA is also to be launched in or around 2017. Phase I of the TFTA suggests modest efforts at integration as it is built on the principles of variable geometry eschewing a more ambitious “single undertaking” and the acquis (go forward but not backwards) with modest tariff reductions on the table, a list (rather than an economy-wide criterion) for rules of origin, trade remedies to address dumping, and import surges. The agenda for phase II is to be decided but should include services and...

Last month, I attended the African Leadership Forum in the Tanzanian capital of Dar es Salaam on the theme of "Moving Towards An Integrated Africa." The meeting was hosted by former Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa's Uongozi Institute, and attended by former presidents Olusegun Obasanjo (Nigeria), Festus Mogae (Botswana), Jerry Rawlings (Ghana), Bakili Muluzi (Malawi), and Hifikepunye Pohamba (Namibia). The Executive Secretaries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the East African Community (EAC) were also present, as were invited civil society actors. Delivering the keynote address was Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, who has long fancied himself as a "Bismarck of East Africa", with dreams of creating a political federation in a subregion consisting also of Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, and Rwanda. These aspirations were reflected in his address which pushed for a larger regional market in East Africa to increase the leverage of the subregion to negotiate more effectively with external actors. Citing the high level of cultural integration in the subregion - reinforced by the common lingua franca of Swahili - he called for a political union, noting that for such efforts to succeed, East African leaders would need to explain to their 140 million citizens how regional integration could directly enhance their prosperity and security. I had the opportunity, from the audience, to challenge president Museveni - who has been in power for 29 years - on the issue of presidential term limits, noting that on assuming office in 1986, he had criticised African leaders for overstaying in...