JUBA, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan on Monday opened its second edition of the Made-in-South Sudan Exhibition aimed at promoting locally-made products and open up the country's investment opportunities. Paul Mayom Akech, Minister of Trade, Industry and East African Community Affairs said this year's event focuses on exposing the country's agriculture and manufacturing potentials in a bid to reduce dependence on imports. Akech said the government seeks to boost South Sudan's manufacturing sector through enacting laws to safeguard investors and the local consumers. "Our immediate task is to enhance policies that will safeguard the producer and the consumer. Engage with financial institutions to provide resources to this local business groups, find them market outside South Sudan and make conditions of export easier for them," Aketch said. The event which brought together over 50 exhibitors is supported by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and it will run until Oct. 20. Participants are drawn from sectors such as agriculture, construction, cosmetics, beverages, electronics, textiles, banking and insurance among others. South Sudan depends on oil revenue for over 90 percent of its budget, but production reduced significantly due to civil war that erupted in December 2013, causing most oilfields in the country's oil-rich northern region to shut down. The east African nation is currently struggling with hyper inflation amid shortage of foreign reserves to support its import-dependent economy. Enditem Source China

In March 2018, African heads of State gathered in Kigali to launch an initiative that will increase the level of intra African trade. The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) points out that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is a move in the right direction for the continent, as it will cover a market of 1.2 billion people and a gross domestic product (GDP) of $2.5 trillion, across all 55 member States of the African Union. In terms of numbers of participating countries, AfCFTA will be the world’s largest free trade area since the formation of the World Trade Organisation. Considering that informal cross border trade (ICBT) is a source of income to about 43 per cent of Africa’s population, boosting informal cross border trade on the continent is an integral part of achieving sustainable development. Further, small and medium-sized enterprises account for around 80 per cent of the region’s businesses. UNECA also indicates that women are estimated to account for around 70 per cent of informal cross border traders in Africa and are exposed to challenges such as harassment, violence, confiscation of goods and even imprisonment. By and large, ICBT is largely practised by the officially unemployed and micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises, and is therefore also important for strategies of inclusion. An example of an intervention that is worth mentioning is one by TradeMark Africa (TMA) in a project in Rwanda aimed at increasing the economic power of women in informal cross-border trade. The project...

Fourth G20 Summit that saw over 55 heads of delegation attend came to close on Friday after a two-day meeting on the sidelines of IMF and the World Bank annual meetings with Argentine Minister of Treasury Nicolás Dujovne underscoring the progress made by member states. “We have discussed the outlook of the global economy, which remains positive, while global growth projections remain steady. However, the expansion has become less even across economies, and some of the downside risks that were discussed earlier in the year are starting to materialize,” Dujovne held. Dujovne said that monetary policy was normalizing in advanced economies while emerging ones were experiencing rigid financial conditions while other markets were experiencing market instabilities. The representatives from the G20 agreed to cooperate so as to sustain global financial stability. He said, “We agreed that international trade is an important engine of growth, and we need to resolve tensions which can negatively affect market sentiment and increase financial volatility.” 20 finance ministers, 17 central bank governors and 10 heads of international organizations attended the occasion in Bali, Indonesia which was chaired by Nicolás Dujovne, Argentine Minister of Finance and Verónica Rappoport, Second Vice-president of the Argentine Central Bank. IMF managing director Christine Lagarde and Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group also attended the conference where discussions on threats to global economy, trade tensions and financial susceptibilities took place. Before the close on Friday, discussions around developing infrastructure as an asset class took place to promote private...

After decades of unabated downturn, rail transport is steadily bouncing back, thanks to technological innovation, a shift in management approaches and effects of climate change. This has seen increased sensitisation on environmental issues. But in Africa, this renaissance has encountered some bottlenecks, owing to inadequate government commitment in some countries. The African Development Bank (AfDB), in its 2015 report titled Rail Infrastructure in Africa: Financing Policy Options, said Africa is experiencing an unprecedented economic recovery, with strong growth projections over the next three to four decades. According to the report, the growth was driven by a fast-growing demographic and large-scale urbanisation. The operation of new mines, gas and oil fields, as well as the increase in intra-regional and international trade, were additional growth factors. Notably, the transport sector can accelerate and intensify trade in Africa. Rail transport, in particular, as a result of its energy efficiency, reduced greenhouse gas emissions and lower cost per tonen kilometre, is expected to play an increasingly important role in the conveyance of freight over long distances. In comparison to other means of transportation, railways are particularly useful in mass transit systems for both inter-city and urban settings. Investment But even as Africa becomes more and more attractive as a destination for infrastructure financing in many sectors such as energy, telecoms and transportation, investment in railways is still small compared with other sectors. This calls for more institutional reforms and more mature financial markets to up-scale the implementation of new approaches to infrastructure finance commonly...

After decades of unabated downturn, rail transport is steadily bouncing back, thanks to technological innovation, a shift in management approaches and the effects of climate change, which have seen increased sensitisation on environmental issues. This renaissance has encountered some bottlenecks, owing to inadequate government commitment in some countries. The African Development Bank, in its 2015 report Rail Infrastructure in Africa: Financing Policy Options, says Africa is experiencing an unprecedented economic recovery, with strong growth projections over the next three to four decades. According to the report, the growth is driven by a fast-growing demographic and large-scale urbanisation. The operation of new mines, gas and oil fields, as well as the increase in intra-regional and international trade, are additional growth factors. Notably, the transport sector can accelerate and intensify trade in Africa. Rail transport, in particular, as a result of its energy efficiency, reduced greenhouse gas emissions and lower cost per tonne kilometre, is expected to play an increasingly important role in the conveyance of freight over long distances. But even as Africa becomes more and more attractive as a destination for infrastructure financing in many sectors such as energy, telecoms and transportation, investment in railways is still small compared to other sectors. This calls for more institutional reforms and mature financial markets to up-scale the implementation of new approaches to infrastructure finance commonly found in developed countries such as project bonds. In Kenya, the standard gauge railway, a flagship project of Vision 2030, financed by the China Exim Bank, has already...

You are in the tech industry. What opportunities can East Africa leverage from the sector? I firmly believe the time is now for East Africa to really leapfrog and catch up with other parts of the developing world, and the way to do that is with digitisation. Digitisation, especially if it is done properly, the one benefit you get out of all that is trust. When you have trust in the data that you are collecting, that you are storing, that you are analysing and you are using to make decisions then you have a much better chance of ensuring a more favourable outcome. One of the biggest problems of businesses, whether they are East African or international, is the lack of trust about doing business in Africa. They [investors] cannot trust that the money that they are putting into these countries is going to be used properly, effectively, and that they are going to get returns they expect. Therefore, it is so much easier to move your money to a different part of the world and, as I said, we can raise our trust levels once we start using technology to capture everything digitally. Do you have specific examples of how this can happen?  One technology, I think, is going to take us to the next era of digitisation is blockchain. Blockchain is a technology that allows you to store data about a transaction in multiple places simultaneously in a ledger so multiple people can have information simultaneously about...

Kisumu International Airport, has recorded much-improved traffic of over 32 flights per day with reduced affordable air tickets that have made customers enjoy an enhanced competition by airlines. This is an indication of increased activity and passenger traffic between Kisumu and Nairobi and Mombasa. While Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi and Mombasa’s Moi International Airport are ‘international’ in their true sense, meaning serving regional and international destinations, Kisumu has not yet been elevated to this status. Early this month, Kenya Civil Aviation Authority said it also has plans to shift the miraa transportation and cargo from JKIA to Isiolo International Airport, which will be serving the Somalia market. The implementation of the international status can greatly enhance the logistics, trade and tourism of Kisumu. As it is, Kisumu serves the whole Western Kenya and South Rift Region. The recent major milestone was in regards to a direct flight from Kisumu to Mombasa. With an increased investment in road network and infrastructure in the region, especially the Sirare-Ahero Road among others, transportation, logistics and warehousing opportunities have great potential. In recent times, the hospitality industry has expanded with increased openings and investment in infrastructure. Investment in hotels and transport has been on an upward trend and visitors no longer lack better accommodation. In addition, the county governments along the lake have increasingly mapped out the tourist sites, national parks and game reserves. As of the six months to June 2018, imports from Uganda, already stood at Sh30.2 billion. Kenya’s exports...

Arusha. The six member countries of the East African Community (EAC) are considering changes to their respective immigration rules. This development comes almost eight years after a deal that was meant to recognise post-training certificates issued by the member countries failed to boost cross-border movement of professionals as originally intended. Established as an economic bloc that aimed at leading to, and result in, regional economic integration and, finally, a fully-fledged East African Federation, the community is currently made up of Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan. In the event, the six countries are contemplating functional regulatory and other frameworks that would not only allow, but also enable, professionals who are nationals of the EAC member countries to freely move across the common borders to engage in employment, research and related activities in countries of their choice. Noting that several measures had already been taken to achieve the common objective of facilitating cross-border exchange of labour and services, officials at the EAC Secretariat in Arusha said that the measures had nonetheless largely failed in that objective. These include the Common Market Protocol, put in place in 2010 to allow the free movement of Labour/Workers, Persons, Services, Goods and Capital, as well as the Rights of Establishment and Residence. “We are working on a regulatory framework that recognises temporary movement of labour so as to enable professionals who (for example) want to relocate for just a few days to complete their projects,” said the EAC principal education officer, Dr James...

Business experts have challenged the African youth, the continent’s biggest market, to consume products made in Africa if the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) Agreement is to be successfully implemented. According to some leading African entrepreneurs, trade and business experts, the profile of African products will be enhanced once Africans place them on top of their preferential list. The push for “Made in Africa First” came to the fore during a panel discussion on CFTA at the ongoing Youth Connekt Africa Summit in Kigali. The conversation sought to explore the benefits of the historic CFTA deal that was signed by African Heads of State and Government in Kigali early this year. “Right now, CFTA is at the signing phase and then ratification phase will follow. But after that, the actual challenge is about implementing,” said Issam Chleuh, Managing Director of Suguba Ltd. The Economic Community of West African Countries (ECOWAS) has similar trading arrangements, he said, yet it is still difficult to move goods between the member states because the existing laws are not enforceable. “We need to have a consumer mindset shift. If today Africans decided that we are going to consume Made-in-Africa before anything thing else, it would be one big way to push African products to a desired level,” Chleuh added. Chleuh’s assertion resonated with what was said by Rwanda’s Prime Minister. About 70 per cent of Africa’s population is under the age of 30, Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente said, suggesting that with Africa’s population projected to double by...

Fourteen years since the East African Community's Customs Union became operational, the Community has postponed the thrice the date of its full implementation. The region was expected to achieve full implementation of the Customs Union in 2010, but has postponed the deadline indefinitely as issues such as the harmonisation of internal and joint collection of taxes are yet to be thrashed out. Subash Patel, chairman of the Confederation of Tanzanian Industries, says that even though the Common External Tariff had been fully achieved, partner states are now choosing to go it alone because of slow implementation at the regional level. He cites the case of Uganda and Kenya, which have gone ahead and implemented the 35 per cent external tariff on steel products to protect their industries. Tanzania, on the other hand, has failed to do so, something that Mr Patel says is hampering the growth of its steel industry, as substandard and cheaper steel products from Asia flood the market. In its current form, experts say, the EAC Customs Union is benefiting a handful of people in the region and a larger number in India and China. This is out of sync with the premise that EAC integration is pro-East Africans. Currently Customs Union implementation benefits politically connected traders importing goods into the EAC. Nicholas Nesbit, chairman the East African Business Council, says the increase in imports and policies whose net effect is keeping East Africans in poverty can be blamed on partner states ignoring the voices of manufacturers...