TradeMark Africa and the International Organization for Migration have entered into a partnership agreement that will facilitate faster clearance of migrants at border posts. The two organizations will soon implement a border project in the Great Lakes region with roll out to other areas expected in future. The partnership will provide integrated solutions for the safe and orderly movement of people and goods across international borders. Under the partnership the organizations, in conjunction with government agencies, will provide integrated border management processes that will cover customs and standards, and also human mobility. As a trade facilitation organisation, TradeMark Africa (TMA) has enabled interventions across the 6 East African countries that contribute to boosting trade in goods and services. It has facilitated construction of 13 One Stop Border Posts and adoption of one stop controls that bring border officials from neighbouring countries under one roof, enabling those crossing the border to stop only once in the country of destination. IOM works to help ensure the orderly and humane management of migration, to promote international cooperation on migration issues, to assist in the search for practical solutions to migration problems and to provide humanitarian assistance to migrants in need. Source: Africa Business Communities

African ports have adopted several recommendations aimed at boosting cruise tourism in the continent, among them modernising terminals. The ports will also pursue an integrated approach towards marketing and promotion of cruise tourism so as to boost regional economies. Speaking during Cruise Tourism Workshop in Seychelles, Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) managing director Catherine Mturi, who is also the Chairperson of the Cruise Indian Ocean Association, said cruise tourism remain largely unexploited and member states could gain a lot from the sector. Mturi observed that KPA was leading the pack in modernising its terminal so as to increase the number of cruise vessels calling at the port of Mombasa. Other recommendations reached during the meeting include investing more resources on developing cruise terminals. Cruise ships calling at the Mombasa Port currently use the cargo terminal. The new facility will be the first terminal customised for the luxury vessels. The Sh350 million terminal is being constructed under joint funding by the government and Trade Mark East Africa and is expected to be complete by September this year. Mturi said the region’s potential was enormous characterised by a great diversity of natural wonders on land and sea, coupled with competitive ports and tourism bodies to support cruise tourism. “It will be appreciated that Cruise shipping is one of the fastest growing sectors of the tourism industry. The industry shows no signs of slowing down, with 24 million passengers having sailed in 2016, a dramatic increase from 15 million 10 years earlier,” she said....

Cartel fears are rising and shippers are getting concerned by the dramatic drop in choice of carriers, in the wake of unprecedented liner shipping consolidation. Just weeks after HAPAG-LLOYD’s merger with UASC created the fifth-largest liner shipping company, COSCO and port operator Shanghai International Port Group (SIPG) could make the 3rd largest, by jointly offering $6.3bn to acquire the Hong Kong shipping line OOCL – Orient Overseas International Ltd. The Offer is dependent upon the satisfaction of pre-conditions, which include the necessary regulatory approvals as well as approval from COSCO Shipping Holdings shareholders. The controlling shareholder, who currently holds 68.7% of OOCL, has irrevocably undertaken to accept the Offer. If successful this latest acquisition is one of the largest in a series of major container shipping events including CMA CGM’s $2.4bn acquisition of NOL in 2016; the merger in 2016 of COSCO and China Shipping; the 2016 bankruptcy of Hanjin Shipping; Maersk’s $4bn acquisition of Hamburg Süd; the announced ONE merger of Japanese lines and the merger in June of Hapag-Lloyd and UASC which is outlined at the bottom. COSCO pledged to keep the OOCL brand and its Hong Kong headquarters, and provided assurances that jobs are safe for at least 24 months. The combined COSCO/OOCL will operate more than 400 vessels over a much expanded network, with capacity exceeding 2.9 million TEUs including order-book. Analysts fear that with the COSCO deal the market share of the top four carriers would rise to 53.8% and there is a real danger of the market becoming an...

The economic benefits of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) project are set to soar with the ongoing extension of the project from Nairobi to Naivasha, and eventually to Kisumu and Malaba. A railway corridor of the type that the SGR project will create works as a system and its full potential can only be realized when the component parts have been fully laid out, constructed and commissioned. Tellingly, it must be understood that while the Mombasa-Nairobi is already up and running, with a scheduled passenger service being the first offering, the end-game of what is easily East Africa’s most ambitious infrastructural project ever, is eventually, a link to Kampala, Uganda and onward to Kigali, Rwanda under the East African Railway Master Plan. Zeroing in on the Kenyan component of the project, the Nairobi-Naivasha phase, especially, holds great socio-economic promise, considering some of the SGR - dependant infrastructure that is being planned for this segment. This phase marks the first component of the Nairobi-Malaba-Kampala SGR and is being constructed by China Communication and Construction Company (CCCC) as the EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) contractor. Due to the topographical challenges of putting together an SGR railway track in the expansive Rift Valley and the financial implications of this, the 505-kilometer stretch has been divided and is being implemented in three sub-phases: Phase 2A (Nairobi - Naivasha), Phase 2B (Naivasha to Kisumu) and Phase 2C (Kisumu to Malaba). Phases 2A and 2B and the Malaba-Kampala section, are currently the at financing identification stages....

Kenya has announced plans to buy new equipment for testing cooking gas entering the local market by road at border points in a move that could end the raging trade dispute with Tanzania The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) Tuesday said it was procuring two test machines — gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GCMS) — for the inspections. This came after Ministry of Energy officials in May banned gas imports from Tanzania through land border due to failure to meet safety standards that exposed Kenyan consumers to the risk of cylinder explosions. “Purchase of an additional two GCSM machines is necessary in order to ensure that all LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) entering the country through the road border points is sampled and tested,” ERC acting director-general Pavel Oimeke told the Business Daily. The ERC puts the cost of one machine at between $100,000 (Sh10.3 million) and $400,000 (Sh41.2 million). The government currently has only one functional similar machine at the Kenya Petroleum Refineries Limited, which is used to test and certify all cooking gas imports through the Mombasa port. Kenya has for the last two months blocked more than 4,000 metric tonnes of cooking gas from entering the local market, including through the border town of Namanga. The ban has effectively made Mombasa the only entry route for LPG. The investigation into Tanzania gas imports revealed that some cylinders lacked the chemical additive ethyl mercaptan (rotten egg odour) that enables gas detection and appropriate response by users. The inquiry also revealed that Tanzania importers...

The Belt and Road Initiative is generating a symphony of development worldwide. The Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation held in Beijing in May, and attended by more than 1,500 representatives from 130 countries and regions, achieved 270 deliverables. The Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway in Kenya, which opened on May 31, is also a fruit of the Belt and Road Initiative, as China loaned nearly 90 percent of the construction cost to Kenya and helped build the 480-kilometer railway in four years. Overshadowed by the lack of fairness, openness, inclusiveness and public goods over the past few years, global governance needs fresh engines and more inclusive developmental mechanisms. The initiative's developmental finance, for example, comes with both financial services and institutional guidance to complement the market economy of some countries. High on the agenda of the initiative, infrastructure is sought after by a slew of developing countries aspiring for industrialization. China's success in lifting 700 million people out of poverty in about four decades is also a key inspiration for those countries participating in the initiative. Setting rules is no doubt necessary, but China has another important lesson to offer: development does not have a fixed pattern. Uzbekistan and Indonesia would not have received considerable infrastructure loans had it not been for China's State-owned banks. Their request for loans would have been rejected by other banks because international financial "norms" say so. China's infrastructure plans, such as building high-speed railways, have been criticized by some Western observers for their...

The 2017 First Quarter East Africa Trade Report issued by Maersk Line Eastern Africa - a member of A.P. Moller-Maersk - reveals that aggregate trade levels in the region have improved slightly since 2016, resulting in overall year-on-year growth of 1%. According to the company's MD, Steve Felder, in line with what was reported last year, there continues to be a noticeable disparity in performance between the two core trade corridors of East Africa. Container trade in the Northern Corridor, which serves Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, and parts of Rwanda, expanded by 1%, whereas the Central Corridor, serving Tanzania, parts of Rwanda, Burundi, Zambia, Malawi and DRC, saw a contraction of 12%. “While conditions in the East Africa region have continued to be challenging due to political instability, ongoing macro-economic headwinds and drought conditions affecting certain countries, we’re seeing healthy competition between the two corridors, both fighting for position in terms of some of the ‘swing’ countries that could export or import cargo through either corridor, specifically Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda.” The Northern Corridor While the Northern Corridor (serving Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, and parts of Rwanda) import market experienced year-on-year growth of 6% in the first quarter, it declined slightly (by 1%) from the last quarter of 2016, says Felder. “In Kenya, liquidity is still very tight, caused by last year’s interest rate capping on the bank lending rate. In the next quarter we are expecting to see a slowdown in the import market as we approach the Kenyan elections on 8...

The east African Securities Exchanges Association (EASEA) has commended the current developments on the regional infrastructure and tasked its technical committee to fast-track implementation of the capital markets infrastructure to provide new possibilities for investors seeking cross-border trade opportunities. This was during the EASEA 29th meeting in Nairobi, Kenya on Friday that brought together regional exchanges chiefs from Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Geoffrey Odundo, the CEO of the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) that hosted the meeting, said it is crucial to strengthen the region’s financial markets to attract more investors and increase their liquidity. “An integrated market is critical for attracting foreign investors and increasing liquidity of the region’s market, and as a member of the association, CDSC therefore remains committed towards achieving this key milestone,” added the Central Depository and Settlement Corporation’s (CDSC) head of ICT, James Gikonyo. Speaking at the event, Pierre Celestin Rwabukumba, the Rwanda Stock Exchange (RSE) chief executive officer (CEO), said robust and integrated markets are key to achieve the goals of the East African region’s economic development. RSE automation Rwabukumba told the meeting that RSE was in the final stages of automation of its trading infrastructure, which will automatically be linked to the Central Securities Depository (CSD) and Real Time Gross Settlement System (RTGS) at the Central Bank of Rwanda. Last year, Rwanda launched a 10-year master plan for capital market development. The plan focuses on product development, technology and innovation, capacity building and investor education, savings mobilisation for the retail investors, and...

South Africa last week signed the agreement establishing the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) during a meeting of the Tripartite Sectoral Ministers Committee in Kampala, Uganda. The meeting was attended by the trade Ministers and officials from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Sacu), the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community. South Africa did not sign the agreement when it was initially launched in 2015 owing to outstanding work in some of the annexures to the agreement. All of the annexures have now been completed and adopted by the Tripartite Sectoral Ministers Committee. Trade and Industry Minister Dr Rob Davies said South Africa has been a champion of the tripartite process from the beginning and is committed to the process. “The conclusion of these negotiations will be another important step forward in the process and will provide commercial benefits to our business people by enabling them to trade products between Sacu and EAC countries at a reduced or zero tariff,” he said. The TFTA represents an integrated market of 26 countries with a combined population of 625-million people and a total gross domestic product of $1.6-trillion. Once the agreement enters into force, it will reduce the tariffs on goods traded between the tripartite countries and create new opportunities for exports as well as regional value chains. Source: Engineering News

The economic benefits of the Standard Gauge Railway are set to soar with the ongoing extension from Nairobi to Naivasha, and eventually to Kisumu and Malaba. A railway corridor of this type will create works as a system and its full potential can only be realised when the component parts have been fully laid out, constructed and commissioned. The Mombasa-Nairobi is up and running, with a scheduled passenger service being the first offering. The end-game will easily East Africa’s most ambitious infrastructural project ever, eventually linking Kampala and onward to Kigali under the East African Railway Master Plan. Zeroing in on the Kenyan component of the project, the Nairobi-Naivasha phase, especially, holds great socioeconomic promise, considering some of the SGR-dependant infrastructure being planned for this segment. This phase marks the first component of the Nairobi-Malaba-Kampala SGR and is being constructed by China Communication and Construction Company as the engineering, procurement and construction contractor. Due to the topographical challenges of putting together the SGR in the expansive Rift Valley and the financial implications of this, the 505km stretch is being implemented in three sub-phases: Phase 2A (Nairobi - Naivasha), Phase 2B (Naivasha to Kisumu) and Phase 2C (Kisumu to Malaba). Phases 2A and 2B and the Malaba-Kampala section, are currently at the financing identification stages. A centrepiece of the Nairobi-Naivasha line is the proposed mega industrial park that will be established near the Mai Mahiu Freight Exchange Centre. The dry port will be critical in capturing and aggregating freight to and...