Arusha — Tanzania and Burundi have been directed to ratify the double taxation agreement of the East African Community (EAC) - and formally deposit the ratification instruments with the Community's headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania, by July this year. The just-ended Heads of State Summit in Kampala, Uganda, noted that double taxation could be ruinous to regional trade and, as such, has to be avoided. In that regard - it was argued - a double taxation agreement would allow income generated in any of the six EAC member states of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan to be taxed only once. The lack of such an agreement so far has given legitimacy for national revenue bodies to maintain the status quo, namely: taxing the same income/goods in two or more different countries. The Kampala meeting also directed the EAC states to expedite establishment of the proposed Monetary Institute and allied institutions so as to lay the ground for the envisaged East African Monetary Union (Eamu). It further called for the streamlining of the East African Development Bank's activities into the main EAC structure after a thorough review of its charter. It was stressed that deliberate efforts must be made to promote the cotton, textile, apparel and leather industries "to make the region more competitive - and also create jobs." Priority should be given to the development of a competitive domestic textiles and leather sub-sectors that would provide affordable and quality products. The EAC Council of Ministers - which is...

East Africa is sure about the need for new infrastructure, less sure about how to pay for it. How did a man, wanted by the police in South Africa, managed to vist the South African consulate in Dubai last week and leave unscathed, twice? And what will Robert Mugabe have to say when he meets the man who replaced him, Zimbabwe's new president, Emmerson Mnangagwa? East African heads of state have recommitted to the construction of several hundred ambitious infrastructure projects intended to link the region and increase electricity generation capacity. To complete these projects the region will need at least 80 billion euros over a 10-year period. If the projects are implemented, east Africa will see a huge increase in electricity generation capacity, 7,600km of improved roads as well as 4,000km of standard gauge railway lines, 3,000km of oil pipelines and an oil refinery. However, at the weekend East African Community (EAC) Heads of State Summit in Kampala, attended by Presidents Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, John Magufuli of Tanzania, Salva Kiir of South Sudan and Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, it was clear that funding these projects would be an uphill task. With the exception of Kiir, who was preoccupied with rallying the EAC to support him against international arms embargoes and sanctions, and Burundi’s Vice-President Gaton Sindimwo, whose only contribution to the discourse was to say he backed the proposals, the summit dwelt largely on how the six countries would raise the billions needed to complete the infrastructure plan....

In 1966, the famous giant ferry – MV Uhuru – first floated on the fresh waters of Lake Victoria shortly after it was delivered by Scottish company, Yarrow Shipbuilders. The arrival of the 1,000-tonne, 91-metre long cargo carrier – and its sister MV Umoja signalled an era of a business boom across the East African Community (EAC) as the two plied the Kisumu-Mwanza-Port Bell route in the world’s second-largest fresh water lake. These vessels, owned and operated by the now defunct East Africa Railways and Harbours Corporation (EARH), were the longest on any of the East African lakes and sailed around the lake where they were complemented by rail wagons in Kisumu, Mwanza, Musoma and Jinja. But a wave of nationalisation in Uganda by President Milton Obote and the eviction of Asian traders by a military junta led by Idi Amin saw business dwindle and the country’s economy collapsed. With the collapse of the EARH, the vessels were detained in Kenya. Forty years later, MV Uhuru lies at an under-equipped dry dock rusting away where time and corrosion is slowly gnawing the steel hulls. The wagon ferry too is slowly decaying – with its old grandeur fading away. MV Uhuru’s engine stopped roaring some 12 years ago due to technical hitches and the stoppage of rail transport to the lake in 2006. MV Umoja was bedevilled by accidents and neglect which was once aptly captured in Paul Theroux’s 2002 book Dark Star Safari when he wrote: “The cabin room was...

Upon the full implementation of the prioritised projects, the region will have improved 7,600km of road surface, laid 4,000km of standard gauge railways, and increased the combined installed capacity of electrical power generation from 4245 MW to 6734 MW. EAC | INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT UGANDA - East African Community (EAC) partner states will maintain high budgetary allocations geared towards financing infrastructure development within their national borders. Works and transport minister, Monica Azuba Ntege, the chairperson of the EAC sectoral council of ministers for transport, communications and metereology, said the ongoing infrastructure development projects were meant to interlink the partner states and create a strong common market in the region with sights on the Tripartite Grand Free Trade Area. Ntege said the development of efficient, interlinked and modern infrastructure and energy systems will positively impact on trade, movement of persons, industrialisation, value chains, employment, investments that would prepare the regional economies for socio-economic take-off. She was speaking during the opening session of the Infrastructure roundtable on day one of the EAC Heads of State Joint Retreat on Infrastructure and Health Financing and Development at the Speke Resort Munyonyo in Kampala, Uganda. Ntege disclosed that in their previous three retreats focusing on infrastructure development and financing the Heads of State had prioritised for implementation a total of 72 projects, split into 286 sub-projects over a 10-year period, ending in 2025. “The projects span roads, railways, maritime ports, inland waterways, electrical power generation and transmission, and oil and gas infrastructure,” she said. The minister...

Busia, Uganda | PSCU | Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta has said integration of the East African region will be achieved with the development of shared infrastructure and political commitment of regional leaders. He said the region must integrate to be a truly bigger market, and economically attractive to compete with other economic giants. “We want to compete with the economic giants of the world. If we have to compete with giants we have to be giants ourselves,” said President Kenyatta. President Kenyatta and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni were in Busia town Saturday to commission a one-stop border post to ease the movement of goods and people across the shared border. They addressed a public barasa on the Ugandan side of Busia town. Museveni spoke to Uganda’s commitment to integration, but, in reference to fishing disputes by Kenyan small-scale traders, called for radar and tech surveillance to grow fish stocks as well as tackle disputes. The customs facility, straddling the border comprises offices and space for immigration processes and verification; warehousing and cold rooms for the goods traded across the border; and facilities for expediting trade. The one-stop border facility is part of measures Kenyatta and his counterparts from other EAC countries have spearheaded to ease the movement of goods and people within the region. The One-stop border post concept combines two national border controls into one thereby reducing the time it takes to clear goods and people across the shared borders. This reduces costs and overall time it takes to...

President Museveni spoke East Africa to a lot of common sense in his written speech circulated ahead of the opening in Kampala on Thursday of the ‘EAC Heads of State Retreat on Infrastructure and Health Financing and Development’. Very early on in the speech, the President puts things in perspective by declaring that “we owe it to ourselves and the future generations to ensure that this region has efficient, interlinked and interoperable infrastructure to enable our people to increase their prosperity through the exchange of goods and services”. Good stuff. But, as things tend to unfold, implementation gets in the way. I have never worked in the public sector and therefore have no close-up experience of how ideas get turned into actual projects that affect our lives. From the outside, I am always confused when the government announces a project only for basic issues (e.g. clean tendering, compensation/resettlement) to crop up to delay or fail the project altogether. I would expect that by the time the President, for example, announces that a road will be built in place X, all the groundwork has been done. In other words, the announcement would be more about when the project will actually start, how long it will take, how much it will cost, why it is needed, and possibly who the contractor is. When the government says it is expanding the Northern Bypass in Kampala over the next two years, one assumes that at that point all the funding has been got, compensation...

For a long time, there has been a desire to build a strong, integrated community in eastern Africa. Yet to fully integrate, political goodwill is essential, but has been lacking. Fear and mistrust of each other’s intentions have informed foreign policy in the region, thus hindering efforts that could lead to a strong regional bloc with the capacity to compete with other economic blocs like the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas). Fear revolves around the risk of local populations in east African countries losing their jobs to foreigners, either because they would provide cheaper labour or they would be better qualified. In South Africa, for instance, a paucity of jobs, and the few available being taken up by expatriate workers, has led to xenophobic attacks. The idea of an regional community is not a new concept, having been embraced by the founding fathers of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania in 1967. They believed more could be achieved by pulling together as a united people, but although the community took off to a good start, it broke up in 1977 because of mistrust. Kenya has demonstrated willingness to get the East African Community revived. On his inauguration day on November 28, 2017, President Uhuru Kenyatta lay our borders open to citizens of the east African region. Sadly, diplomatic relations with Tanzania have not been at their best in the last few months. At some point, Tanzania banned Kenyan imports, impounded cattle that had...

Arusha — THE Republic of Somalia is in the line-up for becoming the 7th member of the East African Community (EAC). The prospect will be on the agenda for discussions as the regional bloc's Heads of State assemble in Kampala, Uganda, from tomorrow. The Ugandan Minister of State for EAC Affairs, Mr Julius Wandera Maganda, who currently chairs the Council of Ministers, revealed in a statement here that the six heads of state from Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, Tanzania and South-Sudan will review progress of the verification exercise for the admission of the Republic of Somalia into the EAC. The inclusion of Mogadishu will make the East African Community to now own 'The Horn of Africa,' and boast the longest coastline of the Indian Ocean on the continent. The joint population of Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, South-Sudan and (if admitted) Somalia, will be close to 190 million in total, which is essentially the same number of people as Nigeria. Apart from discussing the horn of Africa factor, other agenda items in the EAC Heads of State retreat's table include the modalities for promotion of motor vehicle assembly in the community, although already Kenya is ahead on this, by hosting assembly lines for Nissan, Volkswagen and China's Foton. Included, too, will be a review of the textile and leather sector, in which Tanzania tops the bill by having a large number of textile factories if the defunct ones were to be revived, and working on the Report of the Chair...

NAIROBI, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta will fly to Uganda on Thursday for a three-day official visit to attend a regional summit on financing infrastructure and health, his office said Wednesday. During the summit of the East African Community (EAC) member states, State House spokesman Manoah Esipisu said in a statement that Kenyatta will showcase the progress Kenya has made in investments in infrastructure over the last five years. Esipisu said the Kenyan leader will also unveil plans for further investment in the infrastructure and emphasize his commitment to a more integrated approach in infrastructure development for the region. "Affordable health for all is one of President Kenyatta's Big Four commitments in his second term, alongside affordable housing, enhanced manufacturing and value addition as well as food security and nutrition," Esipisu said. During the presidential retreat on financing infrastructure and health and a summit of the EAC member states Kampala, Kenyatta will also make the point that it was no longer viable for East Africa to build infrastructure with a silo mentality. According to Esipisu, Kenyatta will urge greater speed in implementing projects, with a sharp focus on continuing the agenda of promoting the free movement of people across EAC and the wider African continent. "The president sees enhanced people-to-people contact as key to improving trade, growing regional economies and lifting the lives of citizens," he said. Esipisu said the president will also speak on Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) arrangements between the EAC and the European Union...

The East African Community member states’ appreciation of rail transport has increased, a trend experts think is good for doing business because it reduces on time. This trend, according to the experts, does not only ease doing business in the region but also it is cost effective because of its turnaround. Latest report from the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) published this month shows that containers delivered up-country by rail from the Port of Mombasa recorded 671 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEUs) registering an increase of 233 TEUs compared to the previous week. Port operations performance during the week showed that a total of 11,189 TEUs (full and empty) were discharged from the ships and 10,049 TEUs loaded for export. The total yard population registered 14,644 TEUs out of which 5,753 TEUS were awaiting pick up orders. Uganda, Rwanda, DR Congo and South Sudan import and export their products through the port of Mombasa. Imports population breakdown indicated that there were 3,170 TEUs locally bound (Kenya) and 4,873 TEUs for transit destinations. Uganda bound containers recorded 3,825 TEUs, out of the 4,873 TEUs making it the biggest customer. This was followed by Tanzania bound containers that registered 444 TEUs, South Sudan with 233 TEUs, and Democratic Republic of Congo with 162 TEUs and Rwanda with 157 TEUs. Reaction Mr Daniel Birungi the executive director Uganda Manufacturers Association (UMA), says the reason Ugandans are taking up rail transport as an alternative is because it’s cost effective, especially to bulky importers. “A case in...