... as a 10bn/- project for two bus terminals in Arusha is on the drawing board as part of a drive to add a notch to Arusha as the seat of the East African Community (EAC), its civic leadership is in the process of establishing two large bus terminals here, which will link all six member states of the regional bloc by a road network. The project cost is estimated at around 10 billion/- . The Arusha City Director, Mr Athumani Kihamia has revealed that locations for the proposed terminals had been earmarked, Moshono being the envisaged host of the larger one, to cater for buses traveling between Arusha, Nairobi and Mombasa (Kenya) as well as Kampala (Uganda), plus linking the region with Dar-essalaam, Tanga and Morogoro. The second one will be constructed in Olasiti Ward and become the main station for passenger vehicles traveling between Arusha and Kigali (Rwanda), Bujumbura (Burundi) via the Great North Road which connects Cape Town (South Africa) to Cairo (Egypt). The station will also serve routes linking the northern zone with the lake zone regions (Mwanza, Shinyanga, Simiyu and Kigoma) as well as Manyara, Dodoma, Singida, Tabora and Iringa as well as southern highlands regions. "We have written to the President's Office (Regional Administration and Local Government (TAMISEMI) seeking permission for applying for loans in the range of 10 billion/- from the African Development Bank (AfDB) to fund the proposed projects," said Mr Kihamia, adding that the works at Moshono would commence in March....

THE decision by Tanzania and Rwanda to construct a Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) connecting the two countries is billed to strengthen the East African Community (EAC) infrastructure strategy and its integration process. The agreement by Presidents John Magufuli and Paul Kagame to put in place a network for connecting Isaka in Shinyanga to Kigali, which will also haul cargo to Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), would hugely boost the regional business and infrastructure strategy. This comes ahead of the Fourth EAC Heads of State Retreat on Infrastructure Development and Financing scheduled for next month in Kampala, Uganda. A professor of economics at Mzumbe University, Mr Prosper Honest Ngowi, told the 'Daily News' yesterday that the decision of the duo would unlock business opportunities in the short and long term, from which landlocked countries in the bloc would benefit immensely. The don noted that in the short term, the construction activities of the SGR would stimulate economic activities directly and indirectly along the railway line, saying the quick wins would depend on local content - if local companies would supply materials and locals would be hired in the project. Prof Ngowi said that in the long run, EAC member states would take advantage of the railway line and emerging business opportunities in different countries, Tanzania becoming the hub for those landlocked countries within the community, thereby fast-tracking the integration agenda. The EAC Head of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Department at the EAC Secretariat Headquarters here, Mr Owora...

The world’s largest container shipping firm A.P. Moller-Maersk is teaming up with IBM to create an industry-wide trading platform it says can speed up trade and save billions of dollars. The global shipping industry has seen little innovation since the container was invented in the 1950s, and cross-border trade still leaves an enormous trail of paperwork and bureaucracy. Success of the platform, which will be made available to the ocean shipping industry around mid-2018, depends on whether Maersk and IBM can convince shippers, freight forwarders, ocean carriers, ports and customs authorities to sign up. Blockchain technology powers the digital currency bitcoin and enables data sharing across a network of individual computers. It will help manage and track tens of millions of shipping containers globally by digitizing the supply chain process from end to end, the companies said. “The big thing that is missing from this industry to digitize and unleash the potential of the technology is really to create a form of utility that brings standards across the entire ecosystem,” Maersk’s Chief Commercial Officer Vincent Clerc said in an interview. A shipment of refrigerated goods from East Africa to Europe can go through nearly 30 people and organizations and involve more than 200 different communications, according to Maersk. Documentation and bureaucracy can be as much as a fifth of the total cost of moving a container. “There is a strong push from the end-customer to see this change. We may meet initial resistance form one part of the ecosystem,” Clerc...

Dar es Salaam — President John Pombe Magufuli yesterday urged Tanzanians and Rwandans to identify investment opportunities that would stimulate business between the two East African Community (EAC) member countries as a way of boosting bilateral trade in general, and their economies in particular. Dr Magufuli was addressing journalists at State House during a joint press conference after he held talks with Rwanda President Paul Kagame in Dar es Salaam. Mr Kagame was on a one-day working visit to Tanzania. Noting that business transactions between Rwanda and Tanzania rebounded in 2015 after falling for three consecutive years, President Magufuli said "... business between our two countries was not doing well... we have agreed that trade must go up." In the event, he quoted data showing that annual trade between the two neighbors fell by almost half, from Sh106.54 billion in 2011 to Sh64 billion in 2014. Dr Magufuli stressed that it was high time Tanzanians and Rwandans looked into investment opportunities, taking that opportunity to reveal that governments of the two countries were already addressing the situation by laying the groundwork for infrastructure development. "We will also ensure that the business environment is conducive for businessmen. After addressing the infrastructure challenges, we hope that this will help to stimulate trade," he said. "Last year alone, we managed to increase Rwanda's cargo traffic at the Dar es Salaam port to more than 950 tonnes, an amount we had never handled previously," he revealed. The two presidents also agreed at yesterday's meeting...

Reluctance by individual East African Community (EAC) countries to fully open their borders is hurting trade and growth of local manufacturing firms, a regional business lobby group has said. East African Business Council acting chairman Jim Kabeho said partial harmonisation of trade rules by the six EAC states has hurt expansion in regional trade. Some EAC countries, he said, are still erecting non-tariff trade barriers at official borders such as refusal to recognise certificate of origin for some goods, more than seven years after the Common Market Protocol was enforced on July 1, 2010. The pact allows for free movement of goods, people, labour, services and capital among the six partner states — South Sudan being the latest member. “There are many positions we (EAC) have agreed upon which are not being implemented. Individual countries do not want to give away their authority to the common market,” Mr Kabeho told the Business Daily in Nairobi. “We do not have a common market per se as far as I am seeing in trade. We still have official borders being non-tariff barriers.” Kenya and Tanzania, for instance, continue to disagree partly over certificates of origin at the Namanga border. The Kenya Association of Manufacturers has blamed the Tanzania Food and Drugs Authority’s for demanding that some of the products from Kenya be registered, re-labelled and retested. The suspicion among EAC states, Mr Kabeho said, has provided room for an influx of cheaper goods available in the region into the bloc, largely from China and...

Tanzania and Rwanda have agreed to start the construction of the standard gauge railways (SGR) from Isaka to Kigali this year as part of efforts to connect Rwanda to the Dar es Salaam port. During a bilateral meeting between President John Magufuli and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame at State House, Dar es Salaam, on Sunday, Magufuli said the 400 kilometre long railways will be jointly financed by the two countries. “We want Foreign Ministers from the two countries to meet next week to start charting out the financing model. We the construction to start immediately because the feasibility studies and all other preparations are complete,” President Magufuli told journalists. “President Kagame and I want to unveil the foundation stone to usher the construction this year,” said President Magufuli. Tanzania has already started construction of the SGR, with the first phase consisting of a 205km electric railway line from the port city of Dar es Salaam to Morogoro in central Tanzania. The $1.2 billion line, being built by Turkish firm Yapi Merkezi and Portuguese firm Mota-Engil, is expected to be completed by October 2019. “Both President Magufuli and I, have said we are even ready to look for loans to speed up the construction,” Magufuli added. On his part, President Kagame thanked his host for supporting his AU chairmanship. “I am happy to work with President Magufuli and other African presidents. They have given me these responsibilities because they are ready to give me support to enable me accomplish my...

Rwanda and Tanzania have agreed on joint construction of a Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) from Isaka (northwestern Tanzania) to Kigali, a move which will facilitate movement of goods between the two countries. The agreement was reached following a meeting between President Paul Kagame and his Tanzanian counterpart John Pombe Magufuli, during the former’s one-day working visit to Dar-es-Salaam, yesterday. President Magufuli said that they have instructed the Infrastructure ministers of the two countries to meet in the coming week to deliberate on an agreeable financing model. “We have agreed to start the construction of the Standard Gauge Railway line from Isaka to Kigali. We have instructed the Infrastructure ministers from the two countries to meet within the next two weeks to start planning the implementation of the project. We want the construction to start immediately because the feasibility studies and designs are complete,” Magufuli said. The meeting between the ministers will, among other aspects, consider the financing models of the project before a tender announcement for the project is issued. Magufuli said that they expected to break ground for the project within this year. The railway line is expected to link Dar-es-Salaam and Kigali via Isaka, and expected to improve movement of goods into and out of the country considering that over 60 per cent of Rwanda’s imports and exports go through Tanzania. Studies conducted by the East African Community (EAC) indicate that the Tanzanian railway route would cost Rwanda about US$800 to $900 million. The Standard Gauge Railway from...

Six years ago, African leaders decided to establish the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA), a flagship project of the African Union’s Agenda 2063 aiming to fast-track the continent’s economic growth and development by creating one gigantic market of more than 1.2 billion people with a combined GDP of US$2.19 trillion. Prudence Sebahizi, the Chief Technical Advisor and Head of the CFTA Unit at the AU Commission’s Department of Trade and Industry, talked to The New Times’ James Karuhanga about the project’s progress ahead of the upcoming 30th AU Summit, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia later this month. Excerpts: You say the CFTA is a game changer for Africa and its people. For readers who might not have followed developments, what is this CFTA and how is it a game changer for people on the continent? The Continental Free Trade Area is a continental geographic zone where goods and services are supposed to move with no restrictions among member states. Once established, there shall be no administrative barriers at any country’s borders in regards to movement of goods and services. The CFTA will be established by a comprehensive agreement to be concluded by African Union Member States within the broader framework of continental integration agenda and the Abuja Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community. The CFTA aims to achieve a comprehensive and mutually beneficial trade agreement among member states covering trade in goods, trade in services, investment, intellectual property rights and competition policy. It is a game changer in the sense that it will be...

DAR ES SALAAM, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- Tanzania and Rwanda on Sunday agreed to construct a 400-kilometer standard gauge railway line from Isaka to Kigali in efforts to connect Rwanda, the landlocked east African country, to the Dar es Salaam port. Tanzanian President John Magufuli told a news conference in Dar es Salaam after talks with Rwandan President Paul Kagame that the construction of the railway line will be jointly financed by the two countries. "We have directed ministers of foreign affairs from the two countries to meet next week to start charting out the financing model," said Magufuli. "We want the construction of the railway line to start immediately because the feasibility studies and all other preparations are complete," said the Tanzanian leader. Tanzania has already started construction of the standard gauge railway in two phases from Dar es Salaam to Morogoro covering 330km, and from Morogoro to Makutupora in Dodoma covering 426km, using locally sourced funds to the tune of about 3 billion U.S. dollars, according to President Magufuli. "Both President Kagame and I have agreed to look for loans to speed up the construction of the railway line," said Magufuli. Magufuli added that Tanzania fully supported president Kagame's candidacy for the AU chairmanship. "I am happy to work with president Magufuli and other African leaders. They have given me these responsibilities because they are ready to give me support to enable me accomplish my tasks," said Kagame.\ Source: Xinhua

NAIROBI, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- The apex body of business associations in the East African Community (EAC) on Wednesday said food, drugs and cosmetics are the most affected by non-tariff barriers in intra-EAC trade. East African Business Council (EABC) Executive Director Lilian Awinja told Xinhua in Nairobi that trade barriers of most other products have been resolved and these goods are freely flowing across the EAC member states. "The main reason why food, drugs and cosmetics face trade barriers at the EAC border points is due to lack of harmonized standards across the three sectors," Awinja said during a media briefing. EABC draws membership from private sector organizations in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi. The regional body has already established an East African Private Sector Standards Platform that addresses trade barriers faced by suppliers in intra-regional trade that are caused by differences in technical regulations among EAC member states. Awinja noted that while Kenya and Tanzania have foods standards bodies, Uganda is yet to fully operationalize its organization. "This has resulted in different laws on food safety that have hampered intra-EAC trade," she said. The East African Legislative Assembly has already endorsed the EAC Standardization, Accreditation and Conformity Assessment (SACA) Bill that seeks to harmonize foods, drugs and cosmetics standards across the region. The heads of states of the EAC partner countries are set to sign the bill so that it becomes law later this year. Source: Xinhua