NAIROBI (HAN) March 21. 2016. Public Diplomacy & Regional Security News. Local industries have received a major boost after the East African Community relaxed the rules on goods made in partner states. According to the revised rules of origin, goods made in partner states will now be sold duty-free. The more accommodating rules of origin have been under discussion for a year, and are expected to promote locally manufactured goods to increase intra-regional trade. The biggest beneficiaries of the revised rules of origin are steel companies, East African Breweries Ltd, General Motors, Kenya Vehicle Manufacturers, Kensalt Ltd and Mikoani Traders, whose products will now benefit the preferential tariff treatment. The products will be required to have a certificate of origin issued by the originating country, showing that they have a local content input of at least 30 per cent, unlike previously when the threshold was set at 35 per cent. Under the old rules, 25 per cent duty was imposed because certain parts or ingredients used in their assembly or production were imported from outside the economic bloc. Key products, on which duty has been scrapped are East African Breweries Ltd’s Smirnoff Vodka (Red and Blue), Smirnoff Ice (Black and Red), and Gilbeys. Motor vehicles manufactured from completely knocked down kits (CKDs) by General Motors; vehicles manufactured by Kenya Vehicle Manufacturers; wheat flour made by Mikoani Traders in Tanzania, salt manufactured by Kensalt Ltd and steel products (nails, chain links, welded wire mesh) will be exempted from the duty. According...

The 17th Ordinary East African Community (EAC) Heads of State Summit, early this month, endorsed and launched the EAC Vision 2050, a blueprint articulating the bloc’s desired future of a prosperous, competitive, secure, stable and politically-united Community. According to a communiqué, the EAC leaders committed to implementing the vision and ensure that by 2050, the bloc will have transformed into an upper-middle income region within a secure and politically united east Africa based on the principles of inclusiveness and accountability. The Vision was initially approved during a Council of Ministers’ meeting in Arusha, in 2014, after which a steering committee was established, to provide quality assurance of the process. Consultations were reportedly undertaken among a multidisciplinary team of experts from the Partner States and the EAC Secretariat with technical inputs from the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). Consultations focused on identifying priority areas that would underpin the Vision for the next 34 years. Rwanda’s EALA member Dr Odette Nyiramilimo is one of the people who participated in the process. Though she had not yet had a chance to read the final document, Dr Nyiramilimo told The New Times, last week, that the most important aspect that was included, “is that EAC will be developed, at least to the level of middle income countries.” “For that to happen, the political federation would have been achieved,” she said. Dr Nyiramilimo noted that she is optimistic that the process of implementation will go forward, “because we have visionary leaders,” and it...

A study by two international oil firms, warning of a possible delay in the completion of an oil pipeline, was at the centre of talks between Presidents Uhuru Kenyatta and Yoweri Museveni at State House, Nairobi, on Monday. Sources within the Energy sector said that Tullow Oil plc and China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC) had a carried out research, whose findings warned Uganda against going ahead with its plan to construct the Northern Pipeline from Hoima through Lokichar to the Lamu Port. It was understood that two firms, working together with French oil company Total, warned that Uganda’s plans to start extracting crude oil for export in 2018 could be delayed if it goes ahead with the Kenya deal. Monday, President Museveni and his delegation presented the findings of the research to the Kenyan team led by President Kenyatta to justify Kampala’s recent decision to shift its focus to Tanzania, a route, which is much longer than the Kenyan option. PROTRACTED DISPUTES Sources said the study warned that Kenya has had a history of protracted land compensations, which would delay the construction of the pipeline from Lokichar to Lamu. “Uganda’s concern was that research by Tullow and CNOOC suggested that land compensation could be major factor in delaying the construction of the northern pipeline,” said a source who attended the meeting. The study pointed to the bitter disputes involved in the acquisition of land for the Lamu Port Southern Sudan-EthiopiaTransport (Lapsset) and in the construction of the Standard Gauge...

Damali Ssali, an MBA graduate from France's Grenoble École de Management, has her finger firmly on the pulse of Uganda's entrepreneurial prospects. She has her sights set on starting up her own business in Africa — a venture capital fund supporting Ugandan entrepreneurs. And Uganda is a good place for aspiring entrepreneurs to be. Last year, the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor ranked African nation as the most entrepreneurial country in the world; nearly 30% of the adult population were registered as new business owners. Damali believes that one reason why so many native Ugandans have turned to entrepreneurship is a damaging lack of access to inexpensive trade. Working at Kampala-based TradeMark Africa (TMA), she liaises with both public and private sector organizations to improve an inefficient trade network. The aim: for the region to trade itself out of poverty and unemployment. Previously, Damali worked as a finance manager for UK-based KIDS charity and the Children's Investment Fund Foundation, before relocating to France for her MBA. What are your future plans? I would like to start up a venture capital fund that provides seed capital to Ugandan entrepreneurs who may have innovative business ideas but lack the capital to start or expand. I live in the most entrepreneurial country in the world. So I suppose I'm in the right place! Why has Uganda become such a thriving start-up hub? Aside from the obstacles to inexpensive trade, a long period of economic stability has fostered a positive environment for start-ups. Uganda is a...

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni is due in Nairobi to hold talks with President Uhuru Kenyatta on the construction of the Kenya-Uganda crude oil pipeline. State House Nairobi said Mr Kenyatta and Mr Museveni will hold bilateral talks on the pipeline, a key factor in the Northern Corridor infrastructure projects. The talks come amid speculation that Uganda has struck an agreement with Tanzania to construct an oil pipeline to transport expected Uganda oil through the neighbouring country. The proposed link will cover 1,120 kilometres and its construction is estimated to create 15,000 jobs. Kenya and Uganda had agreed to construct a joint pipeline to transport crude from the oilfields of Hoima to the Port of Lamu, through Kenya’s oilfields at Lokichar. Huge oil deposits Last week, Tullow Oil announced the discovery of huge oil deposits in Kerio Valley, throwing a lifeline to the prospects of a viable Uganda-Kenya oil pipeline. State House spokesman Manoa Esipisu said Uganda’s oil producers — Irish company Tullow Oil, French company Total and China’s CNOC — have been invited to the Uhuru-Museveni talks at State House. Tanzania is competing with Kenya for the pipeline that will tap Ugandan oil deposits. Kenya wants the northern route developed — as part of the Lamu Port, South Sudan, and Ethiopia Transport (LAPSSET) project — to move oil resources from Lokichar to the new port at Lamu. Source: Business Daily Africa

If all works out according to nature’s cycle, the skies could open up in a matter of days and usher in the season of the long rains in East Africa. Nature, however, has become quite unpredictable of late. The El Niño rains came and went last year, and people in the region are increasingly getting accustomed to extremes of the weather. That means the heavy rains could actually come, and perhaps devastatingly so. Or they could simply disappear. Either way, East Africa deserves to be prepared. All too often, millions of people are caught unawares even by a phenomenon such as the long rains that has come with certainty over the millennia. It all means our countries are extremely exposed to changes in climatic and weather patterns. And even if the rains were to come and go in just the right measure, causing an abundant harvest, that still presents a problem. Many are the times when farmers decry losses due to lack of proper storage facilities as well as markets for their products. This leads to undesired losses. It also leads to a situation where there is plenty today and nothing tomorrow, or plenty in one place and scarcity elsewhere. Perhaps the tragedy has to do with governance. There is an “eating” mentality that has laid siege to a significant portion of the elite in East Africa. This mentality assures them that every project, every budgetary allocation, and every need that arises must be fully exploited for the purpose of...

KAMPALA, March 20 (Xinhua) -- Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has said the bloodbath the Great Lakes region faced over the years, although undesirable, helped galvanize the ideology that Africa must solve its own problems rather than depend on foreigners. Museveni said in a statement early this week that the wars in Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, northern Uganda, Burundi, and Rwanda showed that Africa must have the primary interest in solving its conflicts. "Although not planned, (the conflicts) ended up getting rid of the quisling of foreign interests and creating conditions for Afro-centered thinking in these countries," Museveni said, noting that Africa must take advantage of that unity. Museveni said it is that unity that Africa must protect against the continued foreign selfish interests. He argued that where populations are either similar, linked or compatible, there should be political integration, noting that is only a strong unified force that can push for its interest in the global arena. "We believe and know that the East African Federation is possible and it would create a center of gravity for the black race," he said. The East African Community (EAC), a regional body bringing together Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and now South Sudan, plans to have a political federation. South Sudan was early admitted into the EAC, bring the total population of the bloc to 160 million people. The president said apart from the strategic security against potential imperialism, the prosperity of the African people revolves around the production of...

The announcement last week that construction of the Tanzania-Uganda crude oil pipleline would begin in August was received warmly by those who have the East African Community’s (EAC) best interests at heart. As a factor of increasing greater regional integration, the pipeline, (like the proposed Standard Gauge railways), will also improve the EAC’s profile as an attractive investment destination. The 1,403-kilometre pipeline will link oil fields in Uganda’s Lake Albert, Hoima region to Tanga port in Tanzania. According to senior Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation officials, the construction of the crude oil pipeline will be carried out by three oil firms, namely: UK’s Tullow Oil PLC, France’s Total E&P and China’s Cnooc. Once completed, the oil pipeline will be able to ferry up to 200,000 barrels per day. The project works will also lead to installations of 200km of permanent new roads and corresponding bridges, and upgrades to 150km of existing roads. Some 15,000 jobs are expected to be created. These kind of projects inspire optimism among both local and foreign investors. This is because infrastructure projects are the foundations of modern economies. They have a huge multiplier effect. For instance regional governments are currently on an aggressive move to build more power plants. Much of rural EAC lacks grid electiricity. When you put up a power plant, you not only generate employment directly through construction and operations at the power plant, but also create an industrial base around the plant who would want to tap the power. This is a...

ARUSHA, TANZANIA - Last week, leaders of the East African Community (EAC) met in Arusha, Tanzania. There were two main items on the agenda. First, the induction of South Sudan as a full member state; and second, the launch of the shiny new EAC passport. Of the two, the latter is arguably more significant. According to a press statement, he gave a score-card of the deliverables during his tenure at the helm citing five key areas in the EAC broad vision and remarked that under his five year tour of duty, the bloc had witnessed significant achievements. His successor is Burundi national, Dr. Libérat Mfumukeko. On the Customs Union, Amb. Dr Sezibera remarked that sustained campaigns to ensure realization of the Single Customs Territory (SCT) had duly paid off. “Today, should one visit the Port of Dar es Salaam right here, you will witness revenue officials from the rest of the Partner States clearing goods,” he said. “The time within which it takes to clear goods has reduced tremendously. At the central corridor, it now takes 3 days, down from the 18 days while in the northern corridor, there is a significant reduction from 21 days to 5 days,” Amb. Dr Sezibera said. On the second item, he said that there was sustained pressure to rid the region of Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs) and such, were paying off while the port clearance times were also reduced from three weeks to under 10 days. On the Common Market, a third item on...

IN SUMMARY Traders are saving up to $300 (Sh30,600) per transaction through more efficient joint clearance of cargo by EAC partner states at Mombasa port. An audit of the Single Customs Territory (SCT) system that was recently adopted by Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania also showed that cargo clearance time at the port has dropped to an average of four to six days, from 18 to 22 in 2013. Under the SCT deal that began in 2014, clearing agents within EAC have been granted the rights to relocate and carry out their duties in any of the partner states as part of a strategy to improve flow of goods and curb dumping. Traders are saving up to $300 (Sh30,600) per transaction through more efficient joint clearance of cargo by EAC partner states at Mombasa port. An audit of the Single Customs Territory (SCT) system that was recently adopted by Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania also showed that cargo clearance time at the port has dropped to an average of four to six days, from 18 to 22 in 2013. “Customs documentation requirements have been reduced by over 50 per cent and one customs agent is required to clear goods right from the Port of Mombasa or Dar-es-Salam to the Ugandan destination,” the Uganda Revenue Authority revealed in a performance update. The SCT system allows joint collection of Customs taxes by the East African Community partners. Under the SCT deal that began in 2014, clearing agents within EAC have...