Three Partner States of the East African Community (EAC) namely; Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, under the Northern Corridor Integration Projects initiative, have waived visa fees for foreign residents living within the 3 countries in order to allow them easier access to the region’s diverse offering. The waiver agreement is part of the Joint Communique that Presidents Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, Paul Kagame of Rwanda, and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda signed at the just concluded 8th Northern Corridor Integration Summit held in Nairobi early this month. Known as the East Africa Tourist Visa (EATV), foreign residents no longer have to pay the $100 fee for the Visa that is valid for ninety days effective December 15th 2014. Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) Managing Director Muriithi Ndegwa said the single tourist visa will provide an amazing opportunity for residents staying in the three Partner States to explore the immense diversity of wildlife, landscapes, cultures, and heritage, among other renowned attractions either for weekend gateways, corporate retreats or annual family holidays. The Rwanda Development Board’s Head of Department for Tourism and Conservation Ambassador Yamina Karitanyi said in a statement that the waiver of the fee on the single East Africa Tourist Visa was the next step in consolidating and enriching the region’s tourism offering. “We are approaching the rest of the world as a unified and rich tourist destination with varied experiences for travellers. We are also positioning East Africa’s tourism assets collectively as part of the Northern Corridor Integration Projects,” said Ambassador Karitanyi...

African seaborne gas exports will play a bigger role in meeting global LNG trade growth than the United States, whose supply will be capped by mass domestic switching from coal to gas-fired power generation, the West's energy watchdog said on Wednesday. Africa's LNG exporters in Nigeria, Algeria and Equatorial Guinea are set for a new supply wave coming from major new discoveries off the coasts of Mozambique and Tanzania, home to some of the biggest discoveries in a decade. By contrast, the United States will fall behind as abundant gas supply muscles coal out of the domestic energy mix, creating huge demand for cheaper gas-fired power generation, Laszlo Varro, head of gas and power at the International Energy Agency said at the Flame gas conference in Amsterdam. The scale of fuel switching facing the U.S. power generation sector outlined by Varro appears to be greater than previous estimates, which assumed coal might remain partly competitive as domestic gas prices edge higher. "Africa will play a bigger role supplying the global trade growth than the U.S.," Varro said. "Coal is in serious trouble in the United States, from (U.S. President Barack) Obama's administration climate policies to U.S. environmental regulations limiting emissions, we see a very large U.S. coal fleet being decommissioned in the next several years and almost no new coal plants being built," he added. Varro said replacing all existing coal-fired capacity would exceed current U.S. gas production and predicted robust growth in gas consumption over coming decades. Despite that,...

Ato Hailemariam Desalegn, Prime Minister of Ethiopia and Chairman of the COMESA AuthorityTHE Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) said 385 out of 476 NTBs identified as most restrictive to trade in the region through an online reporting system have been resolved while seven were considered non-actionable. Currently, eight categories of NTBs have been identified as most restrictive to trade in the region. They include Government participation in trade and restrictive practices tolerated by governments; lengthy customs and administrative entry procedures; technical barriers to trade and sanitary and phyto-sanitary measures. According to the statement, other barriers include specific limitations including quantitative restrictions, and quotas; charges on imports; transport, clearing and forwarding; and issues related to transit clearance; and other procedural restrictions. Customs and administrative entry procedures lead in the number of NTBs reported at 37 percent followed by transport, clearing and forwarding with 17 percent and other procedural problems with 15 percent, the statement added. The online system was developed within the context of a tripartite arrangement among three African trade blocs namely COMESA, East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), for reporting, monitoring and eliminating NTBs. It is a systematic way of capturing, storing, monitoring and tracing progress towards elimination of NTBs among the tripartite countries. This dynamic online system provides a systematic and transparent process for identification and elimination of barriers to trade in the tripartite region. However, if the position of the World Trade Organisation's former Director-General, Pascal Lamy, that removing...

Nairobi — MORE than 2,000 containers that have overstayed at the Mombasa port are set to be auctioned after the storage-charge waiver given to importers expires Tuesday. On February 14, the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) announced that the government would waive all charges accruing on the storage of containers discharged at the port before November 30, 2014, provided they were cleared within 60 days. "All such goods that will not have been removed from the port and Container Freight Stations (CFSs) upon expiry of the 60-day notice shall be sold by public auction without further reference to the owners," KRA said in the notice. The move was prompted by the high number of containers lying at the port, some of which have remained there for over 10 years, holding up space at the CFSs and port yards. But even as the waiver expires, the few number of containers cleared over the past 60 days has sparked controversy, with a section of industry players saying it was 'cosmetic' and was meant to open a window for illegal auctioning of the cargo. Bureaucracy Some importers said they were yet to clear their cargo due to bureaucracy and refusal by some CFSs and shipping lines to waive the charges. By yesterday, KRA could not state how many containers had so far been cleared during the waiver period, with Fatma Yusuf, the officer in charge of marketing and communication, saying they were still compiling data. While multiple sources at the port indicated that the...

(Reuters) - Global goods trade will grow by 3.3 percent this year and by 4.0 percent in 2016, less than previously forecast, mainly due to sluggish economic growth, the World Trade Organization said on Tuesday. "We expect trade to continue its slow recovery but with economic growth still fragile and continued geopolitical tensions, this trend could easily be undermined," WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo said. The WTO figures are based on economic growth estimates from organisations including the International Monetary Fund, which will update its forecasts later on Tuesday. WTO chief economist Robert Koopman said he had seen the new IMF figures and they would be "in the same ballpark" and not affect the WTO's forecast. Although the forecasts do suggest some modest growth in world goods trade, they follow repeated downward revisions of trade forecasts as the economic outlook worsened. Trade grew by 2.8 percent in 2014, far less than an original forecast of 4.7 percent and also below the revised forecast of 3.1 percent that the WTO predicted last September. The new expectation of 3.3 percent growth this year - already revised down twice, from 5.3 percent and then 4.0 percent, is a small acceleration but far below the long term trend. Growth averaged 2.4 percent over each of the last three years, compared with an annual average of 6.0 percent between 1990 and the global financial crisis that began in 2007-2008. "There has only been one other period since the Second World War in which trade growth has...

Dar es Salaam. If development were to be judged by the number of heavy investments especially in infrastructure, then Tanzania would be said to be on the right track—thanks to multibillion dollar projects targeting construction of new ports, expansion of the existing ones and standard gauge railways. First, there is the $10 billion Bagamoyo Port, funded by a soft loan from China, which is billed as the biggest in the region. Then there is another one to be constructed by private developers in Mwambani, Tanga, valued at $30 billion. Another project was announced by Transport minister Samuel Sitta two weeks ago, involving the construction of 2600km of standard gauge railways at the cost of some $7.6 billion. Yesterday, it was announced that the Dar Port will undergo a $596 million (about Sh1.1 trillion) upgrade during the next few years as the government seeks to go abreast with the increase in traffic passing through the country’s major gateway. The World Bank, the UK’s Department for International Development and TradeMark Africa (TMA) will inject a total of $596 million. The money will be used in deepening and strengthening of berths 1-7, the dredging of the entrance channel and turning basin in the port. The World Bank, which is currently financing the construction of infrastructure for the Dar es Salaam Rapid Transit (Dart), will give Tanzania a $400 million loan to finance the port upgrade project in line with the Dar es Salaam Maritime Gateway Project (DMGP). The ultimate goal of the project...

Countries that fail to comply with regional trade rules should be punished, a regional assembly member has said. Mr Bernard Mulengani said East African Community council of ministers should introduce a uniform policy across the bloc to slap sanctions on member states that breach trade regulations. Mr Mulengani, a member of the East African Legislative Assembly, was speaking during a debate on the region’s single customs territory report. “What we need as a region is quality products, lower costs of doing business and competitiveness to spur benefits to the citizens of the region,” Mr Mulengani said. Although there are rules and regulations toward the realisation of these objectives, he said, lack of awareness is impeding their implementation. He said citizens in the bloc should be made aware of the importance of integration. TRADING POTENTIAL “We need to remove the fears arising out of lack of awareness,” Mr Mulengani noted. Contributing to the debate, Mr Mike Sebalu said the business community should be told the benefits of the regional integration. Last year in May, regional judicial officers were trained on the EAC legal framework and their role in integration. The officers were also trained on how to effectively build capacity on their roles in EAC integration. The EAC secretariat in partnership with the German Development Cooperation’s arm GIZ also recently announced plans to hold a series of workshops to bridge gaps in cross-border trade. The training targeting small traders, young entrepreneurs and women traders, will focus on EAC policies, projects and...

PUTTING substantial investment in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to the country’s sea and lake ports to improve efficiency is crucial to increase their contribution to economic growth. “If the ports are to become the wheel of the economy by running efficiently, there is no shortcut other than investing in ICT,” remarked Mr Suweid Faiz Faraj, Lecturer at the Institute of Tax Administration (ITA) at the 2015 Economic Freedom of Tanzania Conference in an interview in Dar es Salaam last week. With sea and lake ports, Tanzania could link land locked neighbours to the global businesses, thus creating huge potentials to generate more revenues and jobs to its people. Recently, the Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) executed a major ICT project connecting the headquarters office with its 13 branches throughout the country. Through Tanzania Telecommunications Company Limited (TTCL) Fibre Optic Cable, TPA’s voice, data and internet services are set to be efficient and facilitate in improving port services. Some of the TPA’s branches include, Dar es Salaam Port, Mwanza Port, Kigoma Port, Mtwara Port, Tanga port, Mafia Port, Lindi Port, Kilwa, Pemba, Bukoba, Nansio and Musoma Ports. “In the modern world of high technology and low cost for communication and transportation, freedom of exchange across national boundaries is key ingredient of economic freedom,” said the Founding president and Executive Director of Uhuru Initiative for Policy and Education, Mr Isack Danford. He said some of the components designed to measure wide variety of restraints or road blocks affecting global trade include quotas,...

Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) will improve its efficiency with completion of a major Information Communication Technology project connecting its 13 branches throughout the country with fiber optic cable. The project will connect TPA with Tanzania Telecommunications Company Limited (TTCL) fiber optic cable through a system called Multiprotocal Label Switching Virtual Private Network (MPLS VPN). Through this system TPA is set to increase its efficiency, reduce paperwork and improve port services. According to TPA Acting Director for ICT, Mr Killian Chale, communication between one port and another will now use CISCO extension that is less expensive and efficient. TTCL’s Chief Technical Officer, Mr Senzige Kisenge noted that the project will assist TPA to improve quality of services and increase in trade. Dar es Salaam port is the Tanzania principal port with a rated capacity of 4.1 million (dwt) dry cargo and 6.0 million (dwt) bulk liquid cargo. The port handles about 95% of the Tanzania international trade and serves the landlocked countries of Malawi, Zambia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda. Source: Tanzania Invest

TANZANIA Ports Authority (TPA) stakeholders want the Dar es Salaam port to operate as a one stop centre and banks serving port clients to operate on 24 hours and seven days a week to boost efficiency. The stakeholders who met in Dar es Salaam recently said their recommendations would help to clear backlog of customers using the port on time and reduce red tape to increase its efficiency as it strives to become the major entry hub for the East and central African region. Institutions whose offices are preferred to be at the close proximity or right at the port include Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS), Tanzania Foods and Drugs Authority (TFDA), Government Chemist, Atomic Agency and Weight and Measure Agency. "These institutions are directly involved in inspecting incoming cargo through our port," said the TPA's Acting Director General, Mr Awadh Massawe, who also doubles as the Chairperson of the meetings. The stakeholders say by putting all the institutions under one umbrella, it will help in reducing time currently used in inspection processes hence increasing efficiency," he said. Mr Massawe said TPA was constructing a building of which such institutions can request for a space to enable majority of services be under a one stop centre. The President of Tanzania Freight Forwarders Association (TAFFA), Mr Stephene Ngatunga said having a one stop centre will help spearheading TPA's aim of making Tanzania the main gateway for neighbouring landlocked countries. In an earlier meeting, the stakeholders called for banks serving port clients...