TANZANIA resolved more than 40 per cent of non-tariff barriers (NTB) to trade registered in an online and SMS reporting system last year in efforts to boost intra- regional trade. TradeMark Africa Country Director, Dr Josephat Kweka, said that 41.6 per cent of all registered NTBs had been resolved thanks to joint efforts by his organisation, government agencies and civil society organisations. "Elimination of NTBs has been one of our inspirations," Dr Kweka told reporters at an event to launch TMA Annual Report in Dar es Salaam. TMA supports the Ministry of Industry and Trade and Tanzania Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture through funding and technical assistance to develop and enhance mechanisms through which NTBs are identified, reported, monitored and eliminated to facilitate an easy flow of trade within Tanzania and East Africa. The Ministry of Industry and Trade and TCCIA support the online and SMS NTBs reporting system. The project was extended throughout the country to ensure reporting of the NTBs was effective. A reported NTB complaint is followed up by NTB National Monitoring Committee (NMC), which updated the business community on the progress of elimination. The committee meets monthly to discuss the new reported NTBs as well as those pending. "More than 40 per cent of NTBs have been eliminated and the most interesting thing is the way they were captured through SMS and an online system, translated and worked on by the relevant authorities," he said. Media reports from Rwanda last week had it that members...

Burundi, the smallest and poorest of the five East African countries, is on the chasm of chaos. Barely forty eight hours after President Pierre Nkurunziza launched his 're-election' campaign, two demonstrators were executed and dozens injured by police. Their only crime was exercising their freedom of expression and their right to assemble and associate freely. If media reports are anything to go by, these killings are just the beginning of a fatal campaign period. Nkurunziza’s unapologetic and seemingly violent bid for a third term is very disturbing. First, it smacks of the Big Man Syndrome, which 'legitimises' total disregard for the supremacy of the constitution. Second, Burundians who have witnessed genocide twice before, in 1972 and 1993, are so scared that thousands have already crossed over into neighbouring Rwanda where they are living in squalor. Third, those seeking refuge in Rwanda are majority Tutsis, an unfortunate reminder of the circumstances that led to the worst genocide in human history. Dozens of Burundians and Rwandese in the US argue that it is just a matter of time before tension start rising between the two neighbours over the ethnic divide and the materially opposing ruling elite on either side of the border. Nkurunziza is an ethnic Hutu while his Rwandese counterpart Paul Kagame is a Tutsi. Both leaders have rebel backgrounds but their leadership styles are totally different. Burundians fear that Kagame may be compelled to intervene on behalf of his fellow Tutsis and in the process plunge the two countries into...

The East African Tourist Visa has a greater impact on promoting regional markets compared to international ones, according to the joint marketing tourism committee under the Northern Corridor Integration projects. The three East African Community (EAC) partner states launched a single tourist visa in February, last year, which allows tourists roaming the three partner states to travel freely without seeking any other travel document or paying more. The visa was meant to open the region to travellers from around the world and help boost tourism in the region marketed as one destination. However, according to officials in the marketing committee, the visa initiative, coupled with a tripartite arrangement between Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda to have citizens of the three countries use identity cards as travel documents, has led to a sharp rise in the rate of regional clients as opposed to those from international markets. Reacting to the development, Yamina Karitanyi, the head of tourism and conservation at Rwanda Development Board, said regional markets were more predictable and sustainable compared to international markets given the trend of travel advisories that have targeted the countries in the region. Kenya has been subject to travel advisories by a number of countries such as Britain and Australia following terrorist attacks. The latest attack by militants al Shabaab on an institution of higher learning in the north-eastern part of the country left 148 people dead and scores injured. “Domestic and regional tourism has gone up in the region, which has also had a positive...

Arusha — The 31st Meeting of the East African Community Council of Ministers is underway at the EAC Headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania. The Council of Ministers meeting is being held through the Sessions of the Senior officials from Monday 27 to Tuesday 28 April 2015, the Session of the Co-ordination Committee i.e. Permanent/Principal Secretaries on Wednesday 29 April, and the Ministerial Session is on Thursday 30 April 2015. The Council of Ministers meeting is considering several issues, including the operationalization of the East African Parliamentary Institute (EAPI), the initiation of policy-oriented Bills by the Council for purposes of enactment of such legislation to support institutional development and the effective implementation of integration programmes and activities, and progress report on the negotiations for the Republic of the South Sudan to join the East African Community. The Council will also consider items in the infrastructure, productive and Social Sectors, human resource matters and those pertaining to Organs and Institutions of the Community. Source: All Africa

The council of Ministers of the East African Community (EAC) will this week meet in Arusha, Tanzania, with the status of negotiations regarding South Sudan's application to join the community expected to be among the top issues on the agenda. The council meetings are attended by the ministers responsible for EAC affairs of each partner state. This week's meeting, which opened yesterday and runs until Thursday, is the 31st ordinary meeting of the council. It normally takes place in three sessions beginning with that of senior officials of the EAC followed by that of EAC permanent secretaries before climaxing with the ministers' meetings that mainly considers key issues forwarded by their technical officials. Innocent Safari, the permanent secretary at Rwanda's Ministry of East African Affairs, told The New Times, yesterday, that the status of negotiations regarding South Sudan's application to join the EAC as a sixth member will be one of the key issues for the council to consider. The Republic of South Sudan, which is currently embroiled in a contest for political power between President Salva Kiir's government and rebels loyal to his former deputy Riek Machar, applied to join the EAC on June 10, 2011. The EAC Council of Ministers then established a high level negotiation team to negotiate the country's entry into the Community, a process that was initiated by the South Sudanese government delegation appointed by President Kiir on March 13, last year. In November, last year, the South Sudanese delegation met the Secretary General of...

The Asia-Africa Summit has been taking place in Jakarta over the past few days, with government officials from over 100 countries taking part. High-level dignitaries attending the event have included Chinese President Xi Jinping, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and Indian Minister Sushma Swaraj, as well as heavy hitters from the smaller nations of both regions. Themed “The Realization of the Asia-Africa Partnership for Progress”, calls were made to push for reform of the global economic architecture, this included implied criticism of the World Bank, IMF and Asian Development Bank, with suggestions that they had done little to deal with issues both in Asia and certainly in Africa. Noting that China’s weight in the IMF was the same as a medium-sized European country, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee stated that such institutions no longer reflected the true world order and welcomed China’s recent plans for the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Source: Asean Briefing

Burundi, the smallest and poorest of the five East African Community countries, is on the edge of a chasm. Barely 48 hours after President Pierre Nkurunziza launched his “re-election” campaign, police executed two demonstrators and injured dozens more. Their crime was exercising their freedom of expression and right to assemble and associate freely. If media reports are anything to go by, these killings are just the beginning of a bloody campaign period. Mr Nkurunziza’s unapologetic and seemingly violent bid for a third term is disturbing. First, it smacks of the big-man syndrome, which “legitimises” total disregard of the supremacy of the constitution. Second, Burundians who have witnessed genocide twice before, in 1972 and 1993, are so scared that thousands have already crossed over into neighbouring Rwanda. Third, those seeking refuge in Rwanda are the majority Tutsi, an unfortunate reminder of the circumstances that led to the worst genocide in human history. RISING TENSIONS Burundians and Rwandans in the US argue that it is just a matter of time before tensions start rising between the two neighbours over the ethnic divide and the materially opposing ruling elite on either side of the border. Mr Nkurunziza is an ethnic Hutu while his Rwandan counterpart, Mr Paul Kagame, is a Tutsi. Both leaders have rebel backgrounds but their leadership styles are totally different. Burundians fear that President Kagame may be compelled to intervene and in the process plunge the two countries into a conflict pitting Tutsis against Hutus. With memories of the 1994...

President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania told public and private stakeholders that the “Government of Tanzania welcomes private-sector participation in the new standard gauge railway (SGR) from the port of Dar-es-Salaam to Isaka and onward to Kigali in Rwanda and Musongati in Burundi”. He said his government also welcomes private-sector investments in toll roads where traffic volumes will offer meaningful returns for the private sector. President Kikwete was speaking to project developers and potential financiers, development finance institutions (DFIs) including the African Development Bank (AfDB) gathered at the Julius Nyerere International Conference Center (JNICC) in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania on March 26 for the Central Corridor Presidential Roundtable and High-Level Industry Forum. The goal of the Forum was to present priority projects on the Central Corridor to potential investors. Other Heads of State in attendance were Presidents Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda. Presidents Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya and Joseph Kabila of DRC sent high-level representation. The Heads of State at the meeting echoed President Kikwete’s call for the private sector to be proactive in working with governments to find much-needed finance to support accelerated development of East Africa’s infrastructure. The Central Corridor from the port of Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania to the hinterland countries of Burundi, Eastern DRC, Rwanda and Uganda is the second-busiest trade and transport corridor in East Africa after the Northern Corridor from the port of Mombasa in Kenya. With discoveries of oil and gas in East Africa, the need for upgrading and...

Arusha. The private sector should now contemplate financing development projects in the East African Community (EAC) bloc as a measure to cut down donor dependency. EAC Secretary-General Dr Richard Sezibera said in Kampala on Friday that the growing portifolio of the projects under the Community also called for diversifying the organisation’s resource base. “There is a need for the Community to tap into the potential funding from the private sector through the establishment of an EAC Private Sector Fund,” he said when he addressed CEOs from the private sector in Uganda. The initiative has been made by the Uganda business community and to start with some $20million would be raised to set up the fund expected to boost the participation of the private sector in on-going integration process. “The idea behind the fund is to see how we can ensure that the private sector plays a bigger role in the integration of the EAC. The fund will be used to address various challenges facing the private sector within the EAC,” the Community boss stated. Hosted by the East African Business Council (EABC) in collaboration with the Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU), EAC Secretariat and Trade Mark East Africa, the Forum brought together over 150 key business leaders. Also in attendance were owners and CEOs of private businesses in Uganda who met to dialogue on issues impacting doing business in Uganda and the region as a whole and strategise on the way forward. Uganda’s minister of State for EAC Affairs, Shem...

According to The East African, Tanzania has started working on a $596 million facelift of its main sea port in Dar es Salaam that is expected to help double the cargo volume handled at the port by 2020. The project is funded by the World Bank ($400 million), the UK’s Department for International Development ($136 million) and TradeMark Africa ($60 million). According to government stats, the Dar es Salaam port handled 14.6 million tons of cargo in 2014. The facelift project is expected to double this to over 28 million tons by 2020. The Dar es Salaam port serves seven neighboring countries — DRC, Zambia, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Malawi and Zimbabwe. Tanzania and its northern neighbor Kenya are caught in a head-to-head race to become the preferred regional transport hub amid massive expansion projects in sea ports, connecting railway and road networks. Source: AFK Insider