Carmen Nibigira, the Coordinator at the East Africa Tourism Platform, has earlier today already been available for interaction to get her feedback to the EATP web portal launch of yesterday. The presentation was well received by the audience in the room and comments were exclusively positive, that another avenue to promoted ‘Destination East Africa‘ had been created and was now active and open for use. Said Carmen to this correspondent: ‘Let me start by registering my and our team’s sincere gratitude to regional governments and their respective tourism boards for the commitment to regional tourism development and marketing. This is the first time that Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda have committed and successfully executed joint promotional initiatives- Destination East Africa Portal joint Advertisement and Documentary. These promotional initiatives are timely, more so, given the prospects for tourism development in our region. They will enlighten our domestic and regional tourists on simplified travel procedures and help entice them to explore East Africa. It is our hope that they will cement our belief in regional tourism and help set the stage for further innovations in regional tourism marketing‘. She then continued to say that the East Africa Tourism Platform (EATP), as an organization was delighted to report that concerted efforts- as public and private stakeholders were fruitful. EATP steadfastly keeps working towards the creation of a single and competitive tourism destination. Key achievements have been made in the adoption of a Joint Tourism Marketing Committee with regional strategy, a single destination brand; that...

Kigali — Strained relations between Burundi and Rwanda continue to hurt some operations of the East African Community (EAC), including failure by officials of either side to attend a regional meeting on another state. Diplomatic sources say although the EAC Council of Ministers--the policy organ of the Community--intervened recently by directing that meetings continue to be held on rotational basis in different capitals as usual, the situation has not been back to normal. The EAC secretary general Liberat Mfumukeko acknowledged during his visit to the Rwanda capital early this week that when there are meetings of the Community in Kigali, delegates from Burundi do not attend and vice versa. The Community boss was quoted by the Rwanda media yesterday, saying that for the last one year the Council of Ministers has been trying to address the issue but without much success. It emerged, however, during talks between Ambassador Mfumukeko and the Rwanda minister responsible for EAC Affairs, Mr Francois Kanimba, that there had been some improvement over the relations between the two neighbouring states and that the opportunity should be used to fully normalise the relations. The minister said there was a time government officials in his country and Rwandans in general declined to travel to Burundi for security reasons and vice versa, though he has seen significant improvement in recent months. Relations between the two countries took a nose dive from the middle of 2015 at the height of violent protests in the Burundi capital over President Pierre Nkurunziza's...

Three East African countries can now jointly market their tourism products on line with the launch of the first joint East African destination portal. Kenya Tourism Board Chief Executive Officer Betty Radier joined other top tourism officials from Uganda and Rwanda in the unveiling the platform at the Pearl of Africa Trade Expo held at the Serena Kampala in Uganda over the weekend. The portal will be a shared platform for tourism trade operator to place their multi-country-packages promoting Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda; and provide a new channel to reach regional and international audiences. It will also allow access to tourism information on products, experiences and destinations, all on a single platform with the aim of enhancing availability of information in the region, as well as accessibility to the tourism supply chain. “The launch of the portal comes in stride with the East Africa striving to work together for the betterment of her people. If ever there was a better time for Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya to come together, it is now. Our economies are growing stronger and travel has been made easier due to the great improvements in our infrastructure,” said Radier. She added:“The fact that members’ countries can easily access each other’s countries by road, rail or even short distance flights should encourage more inter-country visits. Why travel the world when one has not explored the amazing beauty that East Africa as a whole has to offer?” KTB attended the expo aiming to strengthen Kenya’s ties with Uganda...

The United Kingdom has promised to strengthen trade and investment links with the East African Community Partner States for mutual benefit. UK High Commissioner to Tanzania, Ms Sarah Cooke, said that her country would remain an outward focused trade-based economy with strong partnerships with other countries and regional economic blocs even in the wake of Brexit. The high commissioner was speaking after she presented her credentials to the EAC Secretary General, Ambassador Liberat Mfumukeko, at the EAC Headquarters in Arusha. Ms Cooke said the UK would create new partnerships with the EAC aimed at promoting private sector-led economic growth for employment creation and poverty reduction in the East African region. The envoy disclosed that the UK was the biggest contributor to Trade- Mark East Africa (TMA), adding that the funding to TMA was being utilised to finance technical assistance to the EAC in sectors such as customs, trade, investment and video teleconferencing. On his side, Amb. Mfumukeko said his priorities over the next four years would be to promote the free movement of persons and labour as enshrined in the EAC Common Market Protocol; increase investment for job creation and improve agriculture to ensure food security and create employment for the youth in East Africa. Source: All Africa

EAS Africa offers friendly investment ground for German investors that assures high rate of return than any other developing region in the world. This was said by the Kenyan Foreign Affairs Minister Amina Mohamed at the Second German- African Business Summit organized by the East African Business Council (EABC) held in Nairobi last week. The meeting that attracted over 500 participants from business and politics provided opportunity to explore new markets, meet potential business partners and discussed opportunities and challenges on the business environment in Africa. “East Africa region is ready for and welcomes German investors to pursue investment opportunities to reap high rate of return than any other developing nation in the world,” she said. The EABC Chairman Mr Audace Ndayizeye said EABC has agreed to collaborate with the German African Business Association and other important German players as part of a ‘German – East African Advisory Forum’. In addition, the German African Business Association agreed to collaborate with EABC by jointly organizing the EAC – German Business Conference by end of the year. “The conference will not only look at financing for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMES) but also on which Foreign Direct Investment come from other countries to the EAC that Germany misses out” he said. On his part, the EABC Vice Chair Kenya, Ambassador Dennis Awori said, “Regional integration offers a larger market and common laws which reduce business cost of such as stocking in each different country” The panel discussions noted that regional integration successes...

As the East Africa region grows fast in Africa, policies to promote transformation of transport to economic corridors should be put in place to facilitate more dynamic movements of people, goods, services and money. Presenting the working paper on 'Dynamism and Future prospects of Economic Corridors in the East African Region', Chairperson for DAIMA Associates Limited, Prof Samuel Wangwe, said in the recent years new economic movements have emerged. "Growth poles which are an agglomeration of production, logistics and consumption centres have also emerged. Those growth poles have been connected more deeply through transport corridors and by so doing those corridors have been transformed from simple transport corridors to economic corridors," he noted. He said planning the corridor development and its surrounding area can maximise development benefits through engagement of public-private partnership for sustainability. DAIMA Chairperson said prioritising economic potential available in transportation corridors should be given priority by creating friendly business and trade policies. Expounding further he said through absorbing energies from Indian and Arabic world across the Indian Ocean, the region has witnessed more dynamic movements of people, goods, service and money along the economic corridors. As the corridor will not grow without doing anything, he said developing master plan to study them and growth poles was important. The plan will assist in implementation of projects and executing the transformation of process. Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Senior Representative, Mr Amatsu Kuniaki, said they commissioned DAIMA Associates to produce the working paper with interest in looking at the...

Nakuru Governor Kinuthia Mbugua has criticised his Mombasa counterpart Hassan Joho for opposing plans to put up a dry port in Naivasha, accusing him of politicising the issue. Mr Mbugua defended plans to put up the project in Naivasha, arguing that it is not meant to benefit a single county as implied by Mr Joho, but for the economic benefit of the whole country. Mr Joho and some opposition politicians are opposed to plans to put up the dry port in Naivasha, claiming it is a scheme to sabotage the economy of the coastal town of Mombasa. "We will not cease from opposing any move aimed at taking away port services from Mombasa to Naivasha," said Mr Joho on Monday. He further said such a move will create an employment crisis in the Coast. JOHO MISLEADING KENYANS However, Governor Mbugua told Mr Joho to stop misleading Kenyans about the project. "Leaders should support development activities aimed at creating jobs regardless of where such a project is being undertaken," he said. He wondered why Mr Joho is getting jittery over the project that would be of great economic benefit to the country. "I don't know what economic sense my counterpart is referring to given that Naivasha is key cog in the economic growth of the country," he said. The Nakuru governor said the port would not disadvantage the Coast people. He described Naivasha as one of the fastest growing commercial centres in the country, hence the need for such a project....

Singapore is embracing the East African Community Singapore has its eyes on the East Africa Community (EAC). The economic bloc is formed by Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi and is home to more than 157 million citizens. The EAC had a combined GDP of US$147bn in 2014 and an average annual GDP growth of over 6% projected for the coming two years. Huge investment opportunities arise there at an increasingly fast rate and Singapore is taking steps to grow in this market. In recent years, the EAC has started various infrastructure projects to improve the connection between its members, ultimately decreasing the cost of doing business and making the bloc more attractive to trade with foreign countries. Singapore is enjoying this opportunity. The city-state has traded more than $400m with the EAC alone in 2013. Singapore is currently involved in various businesses in the region, ranging from agriculture to digital logistics solutions, and is eager to expand its presence even more. This pace will increase as legal frameworks and institutions covering the whole EAC bloc gain strength and eliminate corruption in the region. Basic infrastructure problems are being solved to promote an easy flow of goods and services in the region. Challenges that the EAC faces are mostly related to poor infrastructure, such as inefficient border posts, road blocks, transit road weighbridges, long clearances at ports, and poor roads and railways. Corruption is also a problem. These challenges, however, in themselves constitute opportunities for companies understanding Africa and willing to...

IN SUMMARY Sudan is Kenya’s fifth largest tea market, importing 27 million kilos of the beverage worth Sh5.1 billion last year A number of restrictions in recent years have lowered the competitiveness of Kenyan tea and posed a threat on the trade. Kenya is the leading exporter of black tea in the world, selling 95 per cent of its tea in the global market. Kenya’s tea exports to Sudan have received a boost after consignment inspection fees were reduced by three quarters and the US’ lifting of sanctions — which were delaying payments — on the Horn of Africa country.  Sudan has been levying an inspection fee of Sh82,800 ($800) on every consignment of tea originating from Kenya, subjecting exporters to high costs of doing business. The two countries have however reached an agreement which will see Sudan slash the cost of tea inspection by 75 per cent to Sh20,700, head of the tea directorate Samuel Ogola has announced. The directorate said that Kenyan exporters incurred a cost of Sh155 million ($1.5 million) between January and December when the directive on mandatory inspection of their tea was in force. “The Sudanese government has agreed to cut down significantly on the amount that they charge our tea on inspection, this comes as a relief to traders who have been incurring high costs,” said Mr Ogola. Additionally, the recent lifting of sanctions that had been imposed on Khartoum by America has also boosted sales of the commodity. Timely payments Mr Ogola said...

Flower producers and exporters in Kenya say demand for flowers just rose slightly this year during the Valentines season, despite new markets such as South Korea and Australia opening up. In addition, Britain’s decision to leave the EU contributed to slow growth. The country’s lucrative flower sector is a key foreign exchange earner but faces an uncertain future as the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union is still pending. If we don't sign that agreement on time then our produce that we are sending to the European countries will attract taxation. In essence increasing the cost of us sending our products to the European market “Our main challenge currently is with Economic Partnership Agreement that is where we are seeing we are going to have a very big challenge simply because if we don’t sign that agreement on time then our produce that we are sending to the European countries will attract taxation. In essence increasing the cost of us sending our products to the European market,” said George Ong’any administration manager at Van Den berg Kenya Ltd. The concessional trade deal between East African countries and the EU primarily gives products from East African Community (EAC) member states duty-free and quota- free access to the EU as long as they meet heath and safety standards.Kenya and Rwanda signed the agreement but it needs approval from all members of the EAC. A deadline to sign the EPA expired in October last year and a meeting held in late...