Parliamentary Diplomacy has played a key role in Global Governance. Experts from all over the world have analysed empirical case studies to demonstrates that parliamentarians and parliamentary assemblies have an increasingly important international role. The European Parliament, said to be one of the strongest autonomous institutional actors in world politics has been at the center of Parliamentary Diplomacy but the world has been turning attention to Africa: looking into the role of parliament and cabinet in foreign policy making, especially in South Africa and the East African Legislative Assembly. According to Weiglas and de Boer (2007, pp.93-4), Parliamentary Diplomacy is the full range of international activities undertaken by parliamentarians in order to increase mutual understanding between countries, to assist each other in improving the control of governments and the representation of a people and to increase the democratic legitimacy of inter-governmental institutions. In this article, Joel Okwemba, the Managing Director at the Centre for International and Security Affairs, shares his thoughts on Why we need a Structured Parliamentary Diplomacy for Africa. Why we need a Structured Parliamentary Diplomacy for Africa. However, opportunities are abounding when it comes to: how Parliaments interact with Foreign Policy questions; how Parliaments engage with the State on these questions; how to create form and structure on Parliamentary Diplomacy; and in the development of academic and theoretical literature on the Parliamentary Diplomacy theory in Africa. Parliamentary Diplomacy also referred to as Parlomacy[1], creates opportunities that are alternatives and complimentary to traditional diplomatic approaches that rely on...

The African Infrastructure Guarantee Mechanism’ was organised as part of the 3rd African Pension Funds and Alternatives Investment Conference. It was well attended by an audience mostly composed of industry players – private pension fund administrators, trustees, asset managers, government pension funds and development finance institutions. This grouping clearly demonstrates the interest to develop such initiatives to scale up greater investments in the African infrastructure space. The session was moderated by Dr Morgan Pillay Senior Infrastructure Finance Expert from GIZ, who presented the objectives of the AUDA-NEPAD session. To objectives were; to gauge the appetite of institutional investors (pension funds) for the implementation of the African Infrastructure Guarantee Mechanism and discuss its financial potential; and to make use of the Pension Fund conference platform to consult on what can make the concept a reality. This includes possible implementation strategies and concrete action steps towards scaling risk mitigation and an African Guarantee Scheme to enable the mobilisation of African pension fund investment for African infrastructure. The session panel, with representatives from the AUDA-NEPAD, the African Development Bank; the Development Bank of Southern Africa and the Trade and Development Bank gave its interpretation of the African Infrastructure Guarantee Mechanism as instrument of risk mitigation. Industry players were requested to give their thoughts on how the development of such initiative could bring value in facilitating alternative investments in the African Infrastructure space. Deliberations included working with development partners in the development of similar initiatives such as the African Development Bank and its co-guarantee...

TANZANIA Trade Development Authority (TanTrade) has successfully helped over 32,000 local traders to access international markets in the past four years. The support has also enabled traders to engage in various activities including establishment of industries. TanTrade Deputy Director General, Latifa Hamisi told reporters on Wednesday that in the past four years traders were equipped with investment and business opportunities information at both local and international levels. She said traders have been enabled to participate in export business, which is the best process in boosting the economy. She said 405 traders were connected to markets and managed to sell 102,000 tons of maize, 2,000 tons of groundnuts, 5,000 tons of soya beans, 50 tones of cereals and 5,000tons of cassava. “TanTrade has succeeded to connect 405 traders who sold a total 0f 102,000 tones of maize in local and external markets, 2,000 tones of groundnuts, 5,000 of soya beans, 50 tones of cereals, 5,000 tones of cassava” she said. Ms Hamis added that traders managed to sell seven tones of papaya leaves, 200 kilograms of the baobab fruits and two tones of cardamom as well as 3.2 tones of ginger flower. The deputy director general gave an example of local market success saying that there were some instances where some farm products produced from one area were made available to the other like export of tomatoes from Tanzania mainland to Zanzibar. On regional market, Ms Hamisi said her office strived greatly to connect traders to regional markets such as the...

THE geographical location of Tanzania stands as a link to sixteen member countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) which have a reason to take a leaf from Tanzania in order to facilitate and boost intra-trade activities in the region. Tanzania boasts many opportunities which may help spread investment potential in the southern Africa region. The development of the SADC region will depend on trade and industrial growth all of which require facilitation of efficient infrastructural development which Tanzania is already investing in. These includes, Julius Nyerere Hydro-electricity power Generation Project which upon its completion is scheduled to generate 2,115 megawatts of electricity. This is enough to cater for the southern African countries. The log stretch of the Standard Gauge Railways (SGR) covers1,450 Km in total. Another one is the 1,860 kilometre-long bi-national railway link known as TAZARA owned by Tanzania and Zambia which is vital in boosting intra-regional trade as it joins southern Africa and Eastern Africa through its railway transport network. The two countries plan to restructure the railway infrastructure for increased investment use by southern countries that will unlock its potential for boosting intraregional trade, a key pillar for regional integration in southern Africa. With a designed capacity of over two million tonnes of freight per annum, TAZARA has been handling traffic for the SADC countries as well as the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), thereby providing a vital regional link with the rest of the world through the port of Dar es...

Tanzania has received a $1 billion syndicated loan arranged by the Trade and Development Bank for infrastructure projects and is seeking an additional $500 million from the regional lender, the presidency said. The government said in 2016 it had agreed a $7.6 billion loan from China’s Export-Import Bank (Exim) to build a railway line that will link it to neighbours, but the funds were never disbursed. No reasons were given by authorities. “TDB has issued a $1 billion soft loan to the country and is now finalising procedures for releasing other additional loans worth $500 million for implementation of various development projects,” the presidency said in a statement late on Monday. East Africa’s third biggest economy wants to profit from its long coastline and upgrade rickety railways and roads to serve growing economies in the wider East and Central Africa region. Admassu Tadesse, TDB’s chief executive, said the bank was in discussion with the Tanzanian government for additional loans worth “hundreds of millions of dollars” to finance infrastructure projects, including a new railway. “We underwrote $500 million of that $1 billion and the other $500 million was mobilised and raised through some of our partners,” said Tadesse after meeting Tanzania’s president. “There is more on the table right now. We’ll be putting in several hundred million going forward.” In total, Tanzania wants to spend $14.2 billion over the next five years to build a 2,561 km (1,591 mile) standard gauge railway network connecting its main Indian Ocean port of Dar...

INDUSTRIAL owners have welcomed the country’s decision to join regional markets while asking the government to continue putting enabling business environment for domestic goods to sustain stiff market competition. This was said in Dar es Salaam over the weekend during the annual symposium organised by the Confederation of Tanzania Industries (CTI) which aimed at analysing opportunities and challenges of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) on development on Tanzania. “CTI positively welcomes the AfCFTA, but all we need to do as a country and private sector is to put our house clear to welcome competition. Tanzanians need to change their mindset to buy locally produced goods instead of imported one as are almost of the same quality and international standards,” said Subhash Patel, the Chairman of CTI. He added that Tanzanians must be patriotic to buying locally produced products as they were promoting a big chain of supply and therefore adding circulation of cash in the nation’s economy. Mr Subhash said that AfCFTA and other market were of more economic value for they were boosting economy ensuring foreign exchange earnings and therefore the government must be ready to put support of the industrial policy and minimize costs of doing business. For her part, MS Farhiya Warsame from the Lasav industries limited advised that if the country’s industries were to compete in the AfCFTA markets, there is a need for simplifying production environment locally. She said that there were need of reducing costs of production and doing business and the...

The African Continental Free Trade Area is a continental agreement which came into force in May 2019. It covers trade in goods and services, investment, intellectual property rights and competition policy. Of the 55 African Union member states, only Eritrea has yet to sign it. The immediate objective of the free trade area is principally to boost trade within Africa by eliminating up to 90% of the tariffs on goods and reducing non-tariff barriers to trade. In 2017, the exports and imports between African countries represented only 16.6% of Africa’s total exports. This figure is low compared with exports within other regions: 68.1% in Europe, 59.4% in Asia, and 55.0% in America. Proponents of the free trade area say that increasing intra-Africa trade will provide larger markets for African producers and encourage manufacturing. It will also help achieve a better connection between production and consumption. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development argues that the phase of transition to the free trade area alone could boost intra-African trade by 33% and increase manufacturing in Africa. This line of argument is that free trade leads to industrialisation and structural change. But in my view it works the other way round: industrialisation leads to free trade. Industrialisation should come first Low intra-Africa trade is indeed an indication that African countries do not consume what they produce. But this is a problem of production (product focus), not trade. The export products of most African countries, which follow the colonial pattern, influence the...

A digital platform specifically designed to address the information needs of women in business and connect them via a custom-built social networking tool was launched over the weekend in Kigali, Rwanda. The platform, known as 50 Million African Women Speak, was unveiled during the Global Gender Summit in the Rwandan capital. It primarily seeks to help economically empower women by providing a one-stop-shop for a wide range of financial and non-financial services that women need to start and grow successful businesses. The initiative which is accessible at www.womenconnect.org is implemented by the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), East African Community (EAC) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). It will allow women in 38 African countries to find information on running businesses, accessing financial services, create business opportunities online and access training resources, ultimately contributing to their economic empowerment. “I certainly believe that the creation of this platform is a very practical way of speaking to the general agenda of empowering women. I think a lot has been said and now we have come to a stage where we have practical initiatives such as this one,” said COMESA Secretary General Chileshe Kapwepwe. Through a robust social networking functionality that has been embedded in the platform, women will have opportunities for peer-to-peer learning, mentoring and sharing information and knowledge, connecting via the web-based platform or through the 50 Million African Women Speak mobile app. The platform is touted as having the potential to unleash a dynamic...

The revival of Uganda Airlines and Air Tanzania have raised the stakes for the aviation industry in the East African region as the two state-owned flag carriers fight for a slice of the sector currently dominated by international carriers, SADAB KITATTA KAAYA. As Uganda Airlines launched two additional routes to Mombasa in Kenya and Tanzania’s Kilimanjaro International Airport, Tanzanian authorities were looking at possible partnerships with Uganda to cut out the possibility of unhealthy competition between the two countries’ airlines. Uganda Airlines resumed commercial flights on August 28, almost three years after the revival of Air Tanzania in September 2016. But since the two airlines are fishing from the same pond for passengers on their regional routes, Atashasta Nditiye, Tanzania’s deputy minister of Works, Transport and Communications, suggests that the two airlines can complement each other with Uganda Airlines feeding Air Tanzania’s long-haul routes. With two Airbus A220-300 and Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner in its fleet, Air Tanzania operates routes to Mumbai, India and Guangzhou, China, and plans to start flights to Thailand which are popular trade and tourism destinations for East Africans. “Instead of competition, we can complement each other by Uganda Airlines flying passengers from its various destinations to Air Tanzania’s hub at Julius Nyerere International Airport, Dar-es-Salaam for Air Tanzania to take them to its long-haul destinations,” Nditiye said. The second area of cooperation is in revamping the East African Civil Aviation Academy also known as Soroti Flying School, proposing that Tanzania’s civil aviation authority works together with...

As the East African Community (EAC) Marks 20 years of regional integration, the East African Business Council has organized a high level business and investment summit. Slated for November 28th and 29th this year, the meeting is intended to discuss wys of making East Africa a leading trade and investment destination and how to increase intra EAC trade. This year, EAC is celebrating 20 years since its revival, marking the signing of the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community which was signed on 30th November 1999. EAC is one of Africa’s fastest-growing regional blocs that registered an economic growth of 5.7 percent in 2018. “While we have achieved many milestones, such as the establishment of the Single Customs Territory and One-Stop Border Posts (OSBP), which have eased the free movement of persons and goods and facilitated trade, there are still several challenges to be addressed, including reducing Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs), protectionist tendencies by Partner States, and delays in harmonization and domestication of EAC-agreed decisions and directives.” A statement from EABC reads in part. The Business Summit will discuss and address some of the challenges hindering businesses to thrive. According to Article 7 of the Treaty for the Establishment of the EAC states on people-centered and market-driven cooperation as a principle to govern practical achievements of the objectives of the EAC integration process. Article 128 emphasizes on strengthening of the Private Sector as a key partner in the EAC integration. But the question is:  How do we make business the top agenda for the...