NAIROBI, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- Kenya will join Uganda and Rwanda to launch the East Africa Visa during this year's Japan Association of Travel Agents (JATA) Tourism Expo to be held later this week, tourism marketers said on Monday. Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) Managing Director Muriithi Ndegwa said the KTB is seeking to increase Kenya's market share by continuously positioning the country as the ideal tourism destination in Africa, however, lack of a regional common visa has been a major drawback towards marketing East Africa as a single tourist destination. "Japan has tremendous growth potential given that 16.5 million Japanese engage in outbound travel annually," Ndegwa said, adding the KTB will be exhibiting at the Expo. Foreign tour operators have complained of cumbersome immigration procedures at border entry points for those who wish to cover various circuits in East Africa. In particular, the requirement for tourists to disembark from Kenya tour vehicles to board the Tanzanian vehicles while crossing into Tanzania has been a major point of complain by the international and local tour operators. Kenya allows tour vehicles from the East Africa Community (EAC) to operate in the country. Previously, foreign tourists visiting EAC countries are required to stamp their passports in each EAC country visited. The EAC is also in the final stages of implementing a single visa for the five member states. The single tourist visa resulted from a joint initiative and decision made by the Heads of State of the respective countries. Before the establishment of...

Asian firms lead the pack among those that bid to rehabilitate and expand the Tanzania-based Mtwara port to a capacity of about 28 million tonnes of traffic annually, driven by the gas discoveries in the Mtwara and Lindi regions in the southeastern part of the country. The bid, whose final selection is set for October, also attracted a local firm and others from the Netherlands. “Several companies placed their bid but it has not been awarded yet,” Mtwara regional secretary, who is also the Tanzania Port Authority board member, Col (Rtd) Joseph Sembakalia, told The EastAfrican. The Tanzanian government announced a year ago that it would invest $214 million in the upgrade and expansion of the harbour to international standards after signing an agreement with the Japanese government to conduct the preliminary survey. Mtwara port manager Musiba Fikili said due to the influx of cargo in the region especially over the past two years as a result of gas drilling activities, the Mtwara port management has come up with a strategy to expand and improve services. According to Mr Fikili, Tsh2.95 billion ($1.7 million) will be spent on improving port infrastructure. “We will be undertaking two projects: One is the expansion and the other is the improvement of infrastructure and working equipment like cranes and tractors,” Mr Fikili. He said they had acquired 263 hectares for expansion. This will see the port increase its capacity to berth seven ships from the current four. Presently, the yard can handle up to...

Contrary to earlier fears that Kenya would dominate its neighbours in a liberalised regional market, figures show a growing trend towards more balanced trade. While Kenya retains its industrial advantage, earlier policies of import substitution and protectionism adopted by Uganda and Rwanda plus an open trade regime have led to more balanced trade. The two countries, which had been Kenya’s biggest markets for long, have started to produce their own value added products thereby reducing the need for imports. Moses Ogwal, director of policy advocacy and trade at Uganda’s Private Sector Foundation, said EAC integration which requires countries to abolish tariff and non-tariff barriers has opened the Kenyan market. “Kenyan businessmen can come to Uganda to buy maize, beans, water melons and pineapples without anyone asking questions. This has increased our exports,” he said. But while it is easy for such food products to enter the Kenyan market, the reverse is difficult because when the region was negotiating the Common Market Protocol, Kenya, which is considered a developing country could only protect few industries unlike the other four partner states which fall under the least developed category. However, Richard Sezibera the EAC secretary general said this should not worry Kenya as the country’s trade in the region had increased in absolute terms. “The rising exports to Kenya is a good thing for EAC as it increases intra-regional trade,” he said adding that it was important for intra-EAC trade to stay above 25 per cent for the planned single currency in...

Nairobi; Kenya: East African Community (EAC) states and the European Union (EU) have reached a new deal in protracted negotiations of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs). The breakthrough draft text for the EPAs paves the way for a final agreement. A ministerial negotiation in Brussels, Belgium, early this year ended without an agreed text. However, an agreement has now been reached by the East African Council of Ministers in Arusha after a day-long meeting chaired by Kenya's East African Affairs, Commerce and Tourism Cabinet Secretary Phyllis Kandie. EPAs are free trade agreements the European Union is negotiating with countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific. Ms Kandie, who chairs the Council of Ministers, described the breakthrough as good news and a clear indicator that regional integration has taken root. "The agreement was particularly significant for Kenya who stood to lose billions in exports to the EU if a deal was not finalised by October 1, 2014," she added in a statement released in Nairobi yesterday. Foreign Affairs and International Trade Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed told a media briefing that Kenya had a very capable team during the negotiations, consisting of Cabinet and principal secretaries and experts from the ministry among others. She added that chances of beating the October deadline were high but assured that in case there was a delay of two to three months resulting in taxes, the Government would make refunds. "At last we were able to agree. We will still be holding meetings on September 24...

The East African Community has accepted a draft agreement for fresh produce exports to the European Union market. On Saturday evening, the EAC Council of Ministers accepted a proposal by the EU to sign a deal before October 1. The agreement, known as the Economic Partnerships Agreements (EPAs), means that Kenya will avoid heavy taxation, which its exporters would have faced in the EU had the regional bloc failed to reach consensus on outstanding issues. “This breakthrough is good news and a clear indicator that integration has taken root,” said Commerce and Tourism Cabinet Secretary Phyllis Kandie, who chaired the Arusha meeting. “The agreement is particularly significant to Kenya who stood to lose billions in exports to the EU if a deal was not finalised by October 1,” she said. However, the decision appears to have been reached too late, since Kenyan flower exporters will have to pay taxes from October 1 after all. This is because the time available will not be enough to implement the provisions of the deal. Foreign Affairs Cabinet secretary Amina Mohammed said the EAC had written to the EU informing it that they had reached an agreement. “I must caution that because of the delays, we may have to meet a higher degree of taxation, because of the process it will have to go through to be implemented,” Ms Mohammed said on Sunday. “We still have a gap of one to two months, but that is not big because we would have faced a...

The East African Community partner states should choose who to trade with and shun 'bad' trade agreements in order to maximise benefits from inter-regional trade, Arancha Gonzalez, the executive director of International Trade Centre (ITC), has said. Gonzalez was responding to a question posed during a media conference at the closure of the World Export Development Forum (WEDF) in Kigali on Wednesday. During the three-day event that took place in Africa for the first time, a pledge was made by participants from 73 countries to work towards facilitating local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to internationalise their operations through, among others, removing nontariff barriers, improving standards as well as building attractive brands. However, it was observed that there's a tendency to patronise African countries when they attempt to trade with economically more advanced regions such as Europe, especially during the process of negotiating trade agreements. An ongoing example is the Economic Partnership Agreement between EAC and Europe, whose conclusion has failed because of what experts say are contentious clauses that don't favour EAC partners. Observers have noted that Europe's failure to compromise or strike out the undesirable clauses is like holding the region at 'gunpoint.' However, Francis Gatare, the chief executive of the Rwanda Development Board (RDB), differed, saying, "there are no gunpoint agreements." Gatare, who was on the same media briefing, added that rather than rush to do business with Europe, there are unexploited opportunities closer to home. "Agreements are signed between two parties and I don't think East...

The re-opening of the long dormant railway line between Tororo and Pakwach, via Gulu, last year by Uganda President Museven, has raised much hope and expectations about growing cargo volumes being shifted from the road to the rail on the main route to Uganda’s North and the South Sudan. Yet announcements made by Rift Valley Railways about the formal commissioning last week of three out of twenty brand new GE locomotives ordered, and the doubling of the rolling stock by mid of next year, do not entirely apply to the Tororo – Gulu route. Like key sections in Kenya and in Uganda along the Tororo – Kampala line, additional work will be required to restore the rail track to higher specifications, allowing for an increase in speed and higher axle loads, if rail transport is truly to offer a viable alternative to road transport. RVR earlier this year already imported automated line maintenance equipment and the two units now in use are deployed along the main line to cover hotspots between Mombasa, Nairobi, the Ugandan border at Tororo and Kampala. It is there that surging demand for cargo space makes it almost inevitable that the new machines are deployed where the most is to be gained in terms of revenues, leaving other lines like the one to Gulu to be largely refurbished by manual labour. Also required is additional infrastructure at the Gulu railhead, like a container depot with road access to the main highway from Gulu to Nimule and...

The World Bank, together with the British Department for International Development (DfID), is providing the money in the form of grants and loans. TradeMark East Arica is the lead consultant and is involved in giving knowhow. “We believe that this programme will turn around the port,” Harrison Mwakyembe, Tanzania transport minister said last week. Ros Cooper, the acting head of DfID Tanzania said after the official signing, “‘The Port of Dar es Salaam is arguably Tanzania’s most important infrastructure asset hence future growth of the economy depends on the port’s ability to improve, to become more efficient and to be able to handle more trade.” Recently, the World Bank reported that Dar’s competitiveness as an efficient transport hub was mainly undermined by inadequate facilities and outdated systems. The bank estimates inefficiencies were costing the country and its neighbours up to $2.6 billion annually. The Dar es Salaam port handles $15 billion worth of goods a year, equivalent to 60% of Tanzania’s GDP in 2012. Sri Mulyani Indrawati, the World Bank Group Managing Director asked the Tanzania government to invite more private sector involvement. She said, “It’s not only that all these investments should be done by the public sector -- inviting more private sector participation can provide more investments,” she said at a news conference after the signing of the port financing agreement. Completion of the redevelopment is expected to raise Dar’s profile alongside Mombasa, which is also in the middle of a major upgrade. However both are overshadowed along...

The East African Community (EAC) Member States have all reached an agreement amongst themselves on a common position on the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPAs) with the EU, a senior Kenyan official said on Sunday. Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed told journalists in Nairobi that the deal paves way for the signing of the EPAs before the Oct.1 deadline. "The agreement now has to go through internal processes so that it is ratified by both parties before the deadline," Mohamed said. EAC Members States include Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi. If the EAC and EU don't sign the deal, then Kenyan exports will subjected to tariffs while the rest of the EAC partners states will trade under the everything but arms trade deal. Kenya is a major exporter of horticulture, vegetables and flowers to the EU. "But because of the delay in signing of the agreement, Kenyan exports to the EU might be subjected to import tariffs for period not exceeding three months," Mohamed said, adding that the government has undertaken to cushion all exporters that will be affected by the taxes. The EPAs, launched in Brussels in 2002, are aimed at enhancing sustainable growth, increasing production and supply capacities of the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, and promoting structural processing and economic diversification of the ACP states while supporting regional integration. Experts say Kenya stands to benefit from foreign exchange earnings, employment opportunities and penetration to the EU market with EPAs. The...

A $565 million (£345 million) project to almost double the capacity of the port of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania has come a step closer following the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU). The MOU was signed by the Tanzanian government and the World Bank, the UK government’s Department for International Development (DFID) and Trademark East Africa, who have agreed to financially back the Dar es Salaam Maritime Gateway Project. The work involves deepening existing berths, building a new one and dredging the entrance channel. The aim is to increase the capacity of the port to 28 million tons by 2020, compared with the 14.6 million tons handled in 2013/14. The cost of the project will be covered by a mixture of loans, credit and grants from the development partners. Phillipe Dongier, World Bank country director for Tanzania, said the project would make “a substantive contribution to the development of both the country and the East Africa region”. Ros Cooper, acting head of office for DFID in Tanzania, said: “The port of Dar es Salaam is arguably Tanzania’s most important infrastructure asset. Future growth of the economy depends on the port’s ability to improve, to become more efficient and to be able to handle more trade.” Source URL: Supply Management