Passengers travelling from Juba in South Sudan to Gulu in northern Uganda now have a faster option, following the introduction of commercial flights between the two towns. The route will be operated by a privately owned airline; Sky Travel and Aviation, which will fly passengers twice a week to and from Juba.  The company had its maiden flight on Saturday from Juba international airport to Gulu airport with one passenger and crew aboard the white 5Y-MWW 12-seater plane.Emmanuel Cosmos Gombura, the director of the company told URN that the flights will ease movement of the business community between the two East African countries. The flights will cost $170 (about Shs 630,000) for a one-way ticket. Gombura added that they have lined up three planes on the route. This means that instead of the usual road trip of 306km, usually covered in six hours, passengers will spend less than one hour to arrive in Juba and vice versa by air.George Lapir Aligech, a businessman in Gulu town and president of Gulu Municipal Development Forum is optimistic that the flights will promote movement of the business community to promote trade and commerce. Meanwhile, Ojara Martin Mapenduzi, the Gulu district chairperson says the initiative will aid rapid economic recovery in Acholi in terms of business and fostering bilateral relations between the Juba administration and Uganda. Mapenduzi says the district will rally support from government to renovate and expand Gulu airport to international standards in order to attract and promote more commercial flights by...

Passengers travelling from Juba in South Sudan to Gulu in northern Uganda now have a faster option, following the introduction of commercial flights between the two towns. The route will be operated by a privately owned airline; Sky Travel and Aviation, which will fly passengers twice a week to and from Juba.  The company had its maiden flight on Saturday from Juba international airport to Gulu airport with one passenger and crew aboard the white 5Y-MWW 12-seater plane.Emmanuel Cosmos Gombura, the director of the company told URN that the flights will ease movement of the business community between the two East African countries. The flights will cost $170 (about Shs 630,000) for a one-way ticket. Gombura added that they have lined up three planes on the route. This means that instead of the usual road trip of 306km, usually covered in six hours, passengers will spend less than one hour to arrive in Juba and vice versa by air.George Lapir Aligech, a businessman in Gulu town and president of Gulu Municipal Development Forum is optimistic that the flights will promote movement of the business community to promote trade and commerce. Meanwhile, Ojara Martin Mapenduzi, the Gulu district chairperson says the initiative will aid rapid economic recovery in Acholi in terms of business and fostering bilateral relations between the Juba administration and Uganda. Mapenduzi says the district will rally support from government to renovate and expand Gulu airport to international standards in order to attract and promote more commercial flights by...

Symposium on Inclusive Participation of Women in Trade, which took place in Nairobi in September, was co-organised by Professor Leïla Choukroune and attended by Nancy, who is a PhD Candidate in the Faculty of Business and Law. Nancy says: ‘The Symposium dealt with the broader perspective of emerging global issues in trade and narrowed down to inclusivity of women in trade from a gender perspective. The event attracted high-level dignitaries including Kenya’s Minister for Trade, UNCTAD Secretary General, Ambassadors and CEOs from various organisations across the globe. Various presentations were made by specialists ranging from information technology, data analyses and legal perspectives. My paper was titled:’Legal Framework for Inclusion of Women in Trade: Case of the United Kingdom vis a vis Kenya.’ This was informed by the 2030 United Nations Agenda for Sustainable Development, which included 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aimed at ending poverty, hunger and inequality, supporting action on climate change, improving access to health and education, and building strong institutions and partnerships. The inclusion of a standalone goal (Goal 5) on women’s equality, as well as the mainstreaming of gender and inclusion through the other 16 goals, is a key achievement for the international community. Gender inequality in most spheres of development remains a major barrier to human development. The presentation demystified the legal and institutional framework of the rights of women in trade, reasons for the shift from exclusion and marginalisation of women for many decades and an increase in inclusion by creation of relevant legislation...

The EAC Regional Meeting on Trade Facilitation is the first meeting of the EAC Sub-Committee on Trade Facilitation under the UNCTAD Phase II project on Trade Facilitation, funded by TradeMark EA. The project is aimed at providing technical assistance to the EAC Secretariat and the EAC Partner States in trade facilitation reforms and simplification of trade procedures built upon the Trade Information Portals, all implemented by UNCTAD. The meeting will ensure a coordinated and harmonized implementation process of the trade facilitation policies in the EAC region. The EAC Regional Meeting will be held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on 22-25 October 2019 under the leadership of the EAC Secretariat with the participation of the Chairs of the NTFCs, Representatives of the Customs Authority and the East African Business Council. At the end of the EAC Regional Meeting, the EAC Secretariat will prepare recommendations to be presented and adopted by the EAC Sectoral Council on Trade, Industry, Finance and Investment in November 2019. Source: United Nations Trade and Development

Recently, there has been a widespread recognition towards agriculture as an engine of growth and poverty reduction in developing countries.  Yet the sector keeps under performing in many parts of our continent and other developing countries. Globally, women produce 50% of global food products and comprise, on average, 43% of the agricultural labour force in developing countries according to FAO statistics. In African countries, according to the UNDP, the economic and social discrimination against women actually costs Africa USD 105 billion a year or 6% of the continent’s annual Gross Domestic Product(GDP). In Tanzania, agriculture is a principal source of income and livelihood for about 65% of the population contributing an estimated 30%to the GDP. There is a greater participation of women than men in the sector split 81% and 73% respectively -the number increases to 98% for women in rural areas. Many of the world’s poorest countries rely on traditional agricultural crops for export however,it has been proven that participation in high-value export commodity chains such as horticulture and fisheries provides considerable opportunities for growth and poverty reduction. An analysis conducted by International Trade Center Non-Tariff Measures Surveys across 20 countries in 2015 revealed that when it comes to gender parity, far fewer women owned businesses are engaged in international trade than those owned by men. Diversification into high-value agricultural exports has been cited as a key means of linking the world’s rural poor to global markets. But how do we unlock this potential of agriculture for improved livelihoods...

The African continent cannot continue to rely on foreign aid to finance its transformation, President Paul Kagame has said. Kagame was speaking in Abidjan at the 8th CGECI (Confédération Générale des Entreprises de Côte d'Ivoire) Academy, the largest annual gathering of Private Sector in the West African country. The summit brings together the private sector of the West African countries and covers topics such as avenues to grow competitiveness, relevance and growth among other topics. "We have to reach a point where our countries have the capacity to finance our own transformation. Development aid has been useful and it continues to be useful, especially when we work to get the most impact out of every cent that we receive. But the point has never been to remain dependent forever when we have always had the potential to be wealthy ourselves," Kagame said during the keynote address. Rather than continuously look to other countries for aid, Kagame said that there are more productive ways for Africa to partner with various countries and regions for mutual benefit. This year's conference is themed around creating a conducive business climate. To create a more conducive business climate, Kagame said deliberation among public and private sector from various countries are crucial to share connections and experiences. "One way to advance this cause, is through forums like this one. Coming together here, we make useful connections, share experiences, and learn from each other. The starting point is ensuring that relevant actors in both the public and...

Duplicate standards and regulations across different state agencies are stifling businesses and investments in the country, United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) has warned. The UN specialized agency that promotes industrial development yesterday called for harmonization of standards and regulations, both in the private sector and government, to ensure the cost of doing business remains low. According to UNIDO, the private sector has for long suffered from regulations and standards that are similar across the ’numerous’ state agencies, where costs such as licensing and inspection fees are payable. This has continued to ‘punish’ business and the private sector at large, the agency notes. “Government needs to have regulations and standards that address the real problem not just over regulating, it needs to address only the problem, we don’t want laws to become roadblocks we want laws that are facilitative,” said Andrew Edewa, UNIDO standards expert. He spoke during the World Standards Day(2019) celebrations in Nairobi, an event snubbed by the Industry, Trade and Cooperatives CS Peter Munya and the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) managing director Bernard Njiraini. According to the UN, there are laws in the health department, trade, industry among other state organs that are duplicated, adding pressure to the private sector. These add to business to business standards which all put together, they are stifling businesses. “The government is speaking tough on their end , private sector has its own business to business standards, the marrying of these two seems to be a problem and it is affecting...

The value of Kenya’s exports to key East African Community’s markets hit a three-year high in first eight months of 2019, official data shows, partly helped by Nairobi’s efforts to ease trade tensions with Tanzania. Earnings from goods sold to Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda stood at Sh77.32 billion in the January-August period, fresh data from the Central Bank of Kenya indicates, a 5.98 percent growth over Sh72.99 billion in similar period in 2018. Kenyan factories have in recent years struggled to grow exports in regional markets largely due to tariff and non-tariff barriers fuelled by mistrust and unresolved trade disputes, particularly with Tanzania and, in some isolated cases, Uganda. Manufacturers have also blamed multiple fees and levies, relatively high power charges and inefficiencies at factories for piling up the cost of production, making locally-made goods expensive in regional markets. Ministries of Trade and EAC Affairs have been reaching out to their counterparts in Tanzania and Uganda with a view to finding a long-lasting solution to on-and-off disputes that usually hit Kenyan products such as confectionery and cement. “The Kenyan team has done a very commendable job in working with the EAC secretariat in bringing both tariff and non-tariff barriers down, and we are also seeing very concerted efforts also on the part of Tanzania to bring these barriers down,” said Sachen Gudka, the chairman of Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM). Source: Daily News

The intra-Global Climate Alliance Plus (GCCA+) Programme on supporting Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Actions in the East African Community has been launched at the EAC Headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania. The European Union (EU) is providing funding to the tune of 1.6 million Euros for the four-year project which commenced in July 2019 and runs up to June 2023. The project which was launched by the EAC Secretariat in collaboration with the EU will, among other things: support EAC Partner States in addressing different climate change challenges; reviewing and updating their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) for the effective implementation, and; developing community based climate change initiatives that will have tangible impacts on local communities. In his opening remarks, the Chairperson of the Meeting, Eng. John B. Kizito, on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Rwanda thanked the EU for its support in enhancing the capacity of the EAC region on climate change, strengthening the implementation of climate change actions, the Paris Agreement and regional capacity to access climate change funding. Eng. Kizito cited some of the challenges posed by climate change in the region and echoed the need to take concerted measures in strengthening resilience while adopting low carbon and sustainable development pathways. The EAC Deputy Secretary General in charge of Productive and Social Sectors, Hon. Christophe Bazivamo, who represented the Secretary General, reiterated the EAC’s commitment to mitigate the impacts of climate change, adding that the Community had developed EAC Climate Change Master Plan (2011-2031),...

The East African Community (EAC) member states on Thursday pledged to enhance cooperation in order to curb tax revenue losses. Patrick Mukiibi, commissioner of tax investigations department, Uganda Revenue Authority told Xinhua in Nairobi that the exchange of information in the economic bloc is critical to boosting domestic resource mobilization. “The overall aim of joint investigations is to boost the tax compliance rate which has a positive effect on tax authority revenues,” Mukiibi said during the East Africa regional meeting for commissioners of investigation and enforcement. The meeting brought together tax investigation commissioners from Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania to discuss ways of detecting and combating tax evasion and tax crimes in the region. Mukiibi said that enhanced collaboration is necessitated because companies in the region have set up subsidiaries in other partner states. “It is also important to work together in order to learn lessons from each other given that different countries have developed different capacities and competencies,” he added. According to the Ugandan tax official, optimum regional cooperation will require that some national laws be amended in order to ensure a harmonized domestic tax regime. David Yego, commissioner of tax investigations and enforcement at Kenya Revenue Authority said that sharing of intelligence across the trading bloc will ensure that tax fraud and evasion that is committed across borders are detected and those found culpable are prosecuted. Source: CGTN Africa