Waturi Wa Matu, the Coordinator of the East African Tourism Platform, the region’s private sector body connected to the East African Community, has given the thumbs up from Juba, where the latest meeting of the Northern Corridor Integration Project took place over the past two days. There were a number of controversial issues which had made their way on to the agenda, prompting finger pointing and cross-table accusations over delays, obstacles, and obstructions. Waturi then aptly posted on her Facebook page: “Partner States carpeting each other on failure to deliver on Heads of State directives...” There was, however, progress, and upon repeated questions and answers going back and forth between Kampala and Juba, it emerged that the visa-free travel for duly registered expatriates holding work permits, or residents holding residency permits, will after all become effective on February 15, two months after it was supposed to come into effect. Said Waturi in her last communication before heading for the formal dinner hosted by the government of South Sudan for the delegates: “Just go with this - foreign residents visa fees to KE, RW, and UG waived for foreign residents from these partner states. They will receive interstate passes at [the] departure airport upon presentation of [a] valid permit. Kenya to implement by 15th Feb...” It should be pointed out, however, that this arrangement only applies at present to Uganda, Rwanda, and Kenya - countries which have subscribed to the common tourist visa and implemented travel arrangements for citizens of the...

While other partner states already use the ID and the single tourist visa for travelling within the EAC, the Ministry in charge of EAC affairs confirms that the reliability of the Burundi ID will determine whether Burundi will join or not. "The Burundi ID is still unreliable, which is why we couldn't join other countries by using the single tourist visa or ID to travel to those countries. We can find one person in possession of two IDs within different birth areas," declares Léontine Nzeyimana, the Minister in charge of East African Community (EAC) Affairs. She indicates that the process of identifying and computerizing citizens is ongoing. "The Ministry of Home Affairs started to register urban citizens for getting electronic ID last year," adds the Minister. This was said Friday on 30th January when the Minister in charge of EAC affairs reported all activities run in 2014. "Among the major activities, there is the launch of the single customs territory, the OBR agents are now present at the port in Dar es Salaam together with other EAC customs agents to facilitate trade and transport in the community. This has contributed much in reducing time and money spent on transport. Now, trucks spend 8 days on the road instead of 21" explains Nzeyimana. Since the single customs territory is operational, clearing processes are established in the country of destination while the goods are still at the first entrance point in the EAC. When all the formalities are finished, there won't be...

Kenya and Tanzania are under renewed pressure to harmonize their port procedures and charges to ease flow of shipment to landlocked states in East Africa. Kenya and Tanzania are under renewed pressure to harmonize their port procedures and charges to ease flow of shipment to landlocked states in East Africa. A latest audit of operations at the Mombasa and Dar es Salaam ports revealed challenges to traders from Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda which affected the overall performance of trade in the region. Source: NTV Uganda

THE government has embarked on a project to develop three One Stop Inspection Stations (OSISs) to reduce non-tariff barriers to trade which inhibit intra-trade in the East African region. The three stations will be set up at Vigwaza in Coast Region, Manyoni in Singida Region and Nyakanazi in Kagera Region, where all regulatory authorities involved in vehicle inspection along the Central Corridor will conduct their inspections jointly at one location. According to a statement by TradeMark Africa which supports the project, the three locations have been carefully selected to capture the largest amount of transit traffic. The stations will combine in one location activities of the Tanzanian National Roads Agency (TANROADS), which controls the weighbridges, the police force, which checks the condition of vehicles and the Tanzanian Revenue Authority (TRA), which carries out customs checks. “The site at Vigwaza is the first major weighbridge location outside of Dar es Salaam capturing both central corridor and the Dar es Salaam Corridor traffic to Southern Africa." “The site at Manyoni captures traffic from the central corridor and that from Kenya into Tanzania and the site at Nyakanazi handles Ugandan, Burundian and Rwandan vehicles,” reads the statement in part. TMA and the European Union (EU) have funded the preparation of the detailed design, supervision and construction of two of the three OSISs at Manyoni and at Nyakanazi, the statement said. The World Bank has agreed to support the preparation of the DED, supervision and construction of the third OSIS at Vigwaza, through the...

SUCCESSFUL implementation of road projects in the East African region requires firm country commitment and prioritisation, the alignment of national and regional objectives and sufficient engagement and consultation with stakeholders. According to the Director of Infrastructure at the East African Community (EAC) Secretariat Philip Wambugu it was also important to harmonise design, construction and operational standards in the region. This is in addition to having clearly defined and coordinated roles, he said, of national and regional institutions at both implementation and operational stages. The EAC senior official said this in his keynote address to the first Africa Bitumen/Asphalt Forum 2015 in Nairobi over the weekend. The two-day forum brought together more than 120 participants from 25 countries. They are drawn from the various areas of refining, trading, shipping and consulting. The theme of the conference is, "New Frontiers in Global Bitumen Market." Road projects, Wambugu said, are hampered by challenges of insufficient resources; inadequate frameworks in terms of legislation and strong capital markets for mobilisation of funds; slow harmonisation of policies and their implementation at national levels; low levels of voluntary compliance; and insufficient automation. "One of the critical problems that the trucking industry has been having is the lack of return cargo. A truck travelling from Mombasa or Dar es Salaam drops goods in Kigali or Bujumbura but is not allowed to pick return cargo, meaning that you pay for both ways as the transporter," said Wambugu. Officiating at the opening of the meeting Kenya's Cabinet Secretary for Transport...

Lusaka- Trade proponents are arguing that the enhancement of regional integration and creation of a grand Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) among the three Southern and East African economic trading blocs cannot be delayed any longer as the global market is yearning for more products from the continent while the groupings need to increase intra-trade among member countries. In recent years, the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) as well as the East African Community (EAC), have been seeking to join forces in fostering regional integration through trade. Commonly known as the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA), the integrated market will comprise the COMESA, the EAC and SADC. The establishment of a single and enlarged market is expected to boost intra-regional trade and deepen regional integration through improved investment flows and enhanced competition. In fact, this integrated arrangement will create a combined population of some 625 million people covering half of the member states of the African Union (AU) and a Gross Domestic Product of about US$1.2 trillion. SADC, COMESA and EAC have agreed to hold the tripartite FTA summit in Egypt to kick start the process, with the gathering scheduled for the end of May 2015. Africa’s longstanding vision is to be an integrated, prosperous and united continent. This vision was supposed to come closer to reality in December last year when the largest integrated market covering 26 countries in eastern and southern Africa (the Grand FTA) was initially earmarked to...

Kenya’s exports to the East African Community have fallen, largely due to stiff competition from cheap Chinese imports and its own unfavourable tax regime. A survey by the Ministry of East African Community Affairs shows that the volume of Kenya’s exports to the EAC has declined sharply with the major challenge being unfair competition from Chinese traders and the country’s value added tax (VAT) system that has become an impediment to export business. According to the survey, competition from Chinese goods and the unfavourable tax regime account for over 25 per cent and 10 per cent of the total decline in Kenya’s exports to the EAC countries respectively. Other taxation measures such as the industrial development fee (IDF) as well as the railway development fund make Kenyan manufactured goods 5 per cent more expensive than imports from Comesa and SADC countries, according to the report seen by The EastAfrican. Electronic single window The report further says that the implementation of an electronic single window system to facilitate cross-border trade is yet to boost trade. It points out a number of obstacles in the implementation of the platform, particularly related to the understanding of the system itself, the complexity associated with compliance requirements, project support requirements and overall change management programmes. “This explains the further decline in Kenyan exports, particularly to Uganda in 2014,” says the report. “In fact, one of the biggest impediments to the implementation of the SWS was frequent system downtimes that significantly delayed the export process,” the...

Uganda, Tanzania and Burundi are yet to secure internal approvals for the Double Taxation Agreement (DTA) to operate in East Africa, five years after the deal was struck. This has left companies with cross-border investments paying tax twice on their incomes. The DTA among the EAC member states was signed on November 30, 2010, but there has been little progress in terms of fast-tracking internal approvals by member countries, including securing Cabinet or parliamentary sanctions to implement the pact. Countries must seek either Cabinet or parliamentary approval to adopt international treaties. The initial deadline was July last year, but it was extended to November 2014 after all the EAC member countries failed to meet the timelines. The agreement is expected to lower taxes and increase cross-border investments. “We expect everybody to be ready by now because that was the last deadline,” an official from Kenya’s National Treasury who did not want to be named said. Only Kenya and Rwanda are ready for the operationalisation of the agreement. Kenya’s Principal Secretary in charge of East African Affairs John Konchellah said the two countries have deposited their internal consent documents with the EAC Secretariat and dismissed fears that there is lack of commitment from their regional counterparts. “Basically there is a lot of goodwill on the integration of the EAC because it is in the interest of everybody that we go in that direction,” Mr Konchella told The EastAfrican last week. Currently, EAC governments tax income earned by investors both in the...

Four Kenyan one-stop border posts are nearing completion and will officially be commissioned by April, setting the stage for faster clearance of goods and travellers. According to Moses Orwa, the project manager of the Lunga Lunga post, the post is almost complete while senior communications manager at Trade Mark East Africa Nelson Karanja said operations at the Holili post in Taita Taveta would start soon. Malaba and Busia will be completed by July and end of the year, respectively. “One-stop border posts envisage a scenario where all exit and entry formalities are handled at one location – in the country of destination, an initiative that will save time and cut down on costs,” said EAC principal secretary John Konchellah. The time taken to clear trucks at the Lunga Lunga border post is expected to reduce by more than 48 hours. It sometimes takes more than two days for a truck to cross the border but once the facility is complete, trucks will take between 20 to 30 minutes or a maximum of two hours during peak time. Currently, clearance of a bus with an average of 60 passengers takes more than two hours but with the new system, the time taken could fall to 45 minutes, according to Kenya Revenue Authority officials at the border. “Effective border management can turn around the economy of an area because it is a catalyst to development. Residents of this area should also know that they are key to the success of the border...

Kenya and Tanzania are under renewed pressure to harmonise their port procedures and charges to ease flow of shipment to landlocked states in East Africa. A latest audit of operations at the Mombasa and Dar es Salaam ports revealed challenges to traders from Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda which affected the overall performance of trade in the region. “The two ports could consider harmonising their port charges, grace period and penalties, in view of the implementation of the EAC single customs territory,” Burundi said in a new report to the bloc’s secretariat. “The two countries should consider allowing clearing and forwarding agencies to go to work at Dar es Salaam and Mombasa ports.” The two ports are the main gateways to the East African region and also service markets in South Sudan and the Great Lakes region, handling key items including fuel, consumer goods and other imports as well as exports of tea and coffee from the region. “Dar es Salaam and Mombasa ports, should establish one terminal for all transit containers for EAC countries. For example, you will see at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi that there is a window for EAC citizens only,” said Burundi further in the update published by EAC secretary-general Richard Sezibera on Friday. The latest claims by Burundi add to a list of concerns by landlocked members of the bloc who felt disadvantaged. A long-running feud between Ugandan traders and Kenyan authorities over the auction of uncollected cargo at the Mombasa port has...