NAIROBI (Xinhua) -- Kenya’s flower industrialists on Wednesday expressed concern about the uncertainty of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) deal that signed between the EU and the East African Community (EAC) states. Kenya Flower Council (KFC) CEO Jane Ngige told a media briefing in Nairobi that all member states’ parliament are required to endorse the deal by end of June, yet there are concerns about the dynamics of different countries in the EAC, some of which are currently undergoing elections and could delay endorsing the agreement. The EPA, which was initiated by all players in October 2014, should come into force in October. Kenya’s exports account for 40 percent of all EU flower imports. The East African nation exports only seven percent of its local production. The EPA deal provides Kenyan flowers a duty free and quota free access to the EU market which absorbs a majority of its flower exports. "We must work hard to safeguard the market share due to the significance of the flower industry," Ngige said. "We have a lot of potential to increase export earnings if we can access more international markets." As part of market diversification, Kenya wants to reduce its reliance on the flower auction in Netherlands and sell more flowers directly to individual country. Source: Coastweek

The Red Sea has played a pivotal role in global trade for millennia. In the time of the pharaohs, it was at the heart of the global spice trade. Today, it is an essential global artery, feeding Western demand for hydrocarbons and facilitating the flow of goods between Europe and booming Asian markets. More than 10 percent of world trade moves through the Red Sea basin every year, a figure that is set to increase as Egypt doubles the capacity of the Suez Canal. And yet, with a few exceptions, most of the modern wealth generated by that trade sails rapidly onward, leaving little to show for its passage. There is no reason that should continue to be the case. A regional effort to facilitate trade and build infrastructure has the potential to reposition the countries surrounding the Red Sea as destinations for global investment and international trade. The Red Sea region, comprising the 20 countries that use the route as their primary trading corridor, is the largest, fastest-growing, and least exploited emerging market in the world. Over the next 35 years, the United Nations expects the region’s population to rise more than twofold, from 620 million today to 1.3 billion. This population growth will be accompanied by one of the world’s highest urbanization rates, creating a burgeoning middle class, which the Brookings Institution estimates will grow from 136 million today to 343 million by 2050. Over the same period, according to current projections, the region’s GDP will triple, from...

Kenya has nearly doubled its electricity exports to Tanzania and Uganda on the back of increased geothermal power generation even as local consumers await the price advantage. Kenya Power, the electricity distributor, sold 46.6 million units (kilowatt hours) to the two countries last year, up from 26.9 million a year earlier, official data shows. The country also cut its power imports by almost half following the injection of geothermal power to the national grid. The additional cheaper geothermal energy, especially the 280MW injected in the second half of 2014, helped to reduce the use of expensive thermal power. But power bills have remained nearly the same over the period as the expected benefits were wiped out by tariff increases in June 2014. Kenya has a direct transmission line connecting it with Uganda, enabling bulk power trade. Uganda accounted for 93 per cent of the market for power from Kenya. The country, however, lacks a line connecting it with Tanzania, resulting in limited power exchange at common border towns which are not connected to the Tanzanian grid. Kenya sells power to parts of Tanzania that via Namanga, while Dar es Salaam previously sold power to Nairobi via the coastal local towns of Lunga Lunga and Vanga. Nairobi last year stopped electricity imports from Dar and significantly cut imports from Kampala while ramping up its power sales. Tanzania plans a natural gas-fired power plant that could result in a cutback on Kenyan imports. Source: All Africa

Khartoum — Sudan participated, with a delegation headed by the Minister of Commerce, Ambassador Salah Mohamed Al-Hassan, in the meetings of the Framework Agreement for trade and investment between COMESA countries and the United States of America in Zambia (Lusaka). The Minister of Trade, in a statement to SUNA after returning home Wednesday, that his participation in the two-day meetings during February 7-8 touched on investment opportunities in COMESA region for the US companies and institutions. Ambassador Al-Hassan explained that the meetings touched on access of the COMESA's states' exports to the United States, referring to Sudan receiving of an invitation to participate in the ministerial-level meetings by the COMESA secretariat. The minister said that his speech to the meeting touched on the financial embargo resulting from the US administration's economic sanctions imposed on Sudan, which has had a negative impact on the health and development aspects as well as the commercial exchange with COMESA countries. The Minister of Commerce urged the US delegation participated in the meetings to lift economic sanctions, particularly that Sudan responded to the request of the US administration to allow exporting gum Arabic. The minister pointed out that the head of the US delegation explained that once Sudan responds to a number of human rights-related requirements and stops the war, then it will be ineligible for US aid as well as the freedom of commercial exchange and the return of US investments. The Ambassador Al-Hassan said he would inform the Minister of International Cooperation and...

President Paul Kagame has said Rwanda does not intend to remain dependent on donor support but rather aims at transitioning to sustainable development by attracting investments and doing business. The President was yesterday speaking at World Government Summit, currently underway in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, with John Defterios, the CNN emerging markets editor, on a one-on-one discussion. The global summit is dedicated to shaping the future of governments worldwide by shaping the agenda with a focus on how they can harness innovation and technology to solve universal challenges facing humanity. Kagame said the national vision is to make sure that Rwanda can stand on its feet, develop, attract investments and do business. "Donor support is not something we wanted to rely on forever, it was there to help build our foundation, institutions and different fundamentals to be in place so that we can sustain our economy based on what we can do ourselves and also within the region, for example through regional integration," the President said. The transition from donor dependence, he said would be made possible by regional integration and increased intra-Africa trade. He said so far as a result of integration, Rwanda was already experiencing increased trade within the East African Community as well as trade between the community and other regions. Under the president's leadership, Rwanda has been pursuing regional integration through multiple ways and is a member of several trading blocs including; East African Community (EAC), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA)and Economic...

The five-nation East African Community (EAC) of Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania plans to transition into a formal federation sometime in the near future, catapulting its significance from a regional to a global actor. The integrational bloc is betting that its East African Railway Master Plan, partially financed and constructed by China, will not only do wonders for its own economic cohesiveness, but will stimulate broader sub-Saharan cooperation. The vision is that this strategic blueprint will link the prospective East African Federation (EAF) together with Ethiopia, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), with the ultimate goal being to bridge Africa’s transoceanic divide by connecting to the Atlantic Ocean via the Congo River and the modernization and expansion of existing railway infrastructure in Zambia and Angola. Without the emergence of a coordinated geopolitical core to manage the region’s strategic infrastructural potential, China’s investments in East Africa might disappointingly fail in their forecasted multipolar function and never become anything more significant than a few scraps of steel. The EAC plans to follow in the footsteps of other regional integrational organizations such as the EU, Eurasian Union, and ASEAN by tightening the relations between its members and formally becoming a factor in world politics. If it succeeds in forming a federation, then the newly consolidated unit would have enormous economic and geopolitical promise simply by means of its expanding population and favorable location alone. These two critical factors are maximized when one recognizes that the countries which would...

Four East African countries on Tuesday agreed to fast-track implementation of a common customs and transit cargo control framework to enhance regional trade. Commissioners-general from the Kenyan, Ugandan, Rwandan and Tanzanian revenue authorities said adoption of an excise goods management system would curb illicit trade in goods that attract excise duty across borders. They said creation of a single regional bond for goods in transit would ease movement of cargo, with taxation being done at the first customs port of entry. The meeting held in Nairobi supported formation of the Single Customs Territory, terming it a useful measure that will ease clearance of goods and reduce protectionist tendencies, thereby boosting business. Implementation of the territory is being handled in three phases; the first will address bulk cargo such as fuel, wheat grain and clinker used in cement manufacturing. ENHANCE REVENUE COLLECTION Phase two will handle containerised cargo and motor vehicles, while the third will deal with intra-regional trade among countries implementing the arrangement. The treaty for establishment of the East African Community provides that a customs union shall be the first stage in the process of economic integration. Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) commissioner-general John Njiraini said the recently introduced customs and border control regulations were designed to enhance revenue collection and beef up security at the entry points. “At KRA, we have commenced the implementation of a number of revenue enhancement programmes particularly on the customs and border control front that will address security and revenue collection at all border points while...

Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) Commissioner General John Njiraini said the tax body commenced the implementation of a number of revenue enhancement programs particularly on the customs and border control front. “These measures are designed to provide a sound platform to refocus Customs and Border Control operations to address security and revenue collection,” Njiraini said. The two-day meeting, also served as a peer review and learning session in operational management and on mutual interest technical issues. The revenue authorities, leadership teams, considered progress made on the Implementation of the Regional Customs Transit Guarantee (RCTG) Scheme, among other cargo transit control programmes. The cost of clearing cargo at the port of Mombasa and of transport along the Northern Corridor has gone down by 30 percent since the implementation of the East African Single Customs Territory (SCT). The revenue chiefs said a fully functional, Customs territory, will, make it easier to clear goods and reduce protectionist tendencies. This is directly geared towards enhancing the ease of doing business in the region. Across the region, the revenue bodies have committed to fast-track, the adoption of Excise Goods Management System (EGMS) solutions aimed at curbing illicit trade in excisable goods across borders. To address cargo diversion cases, the regional revenue authorities have been jointly pursuing programmes geared at reforming transit cargo clearance and monitoring processes. The East African nations are integrating their customs systems to make it possible for the three countries to have a regional bond for goods in transit. The SCT will ensure...

The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) have agreed to facilitate the establishment of a regional Electronic Cargo Tracking System (ECTS). An MOU was signed by URA, Commissioner General, Ms. Akol Doris and his Kenyan counterpart, Njiraini at the just concluded East African Revenue Authorities Commissioners General (EARACG) meeting, in Nairobi. KRA’s John Njiraini said the MOU will facilitate the integration of a regional ECTS systems to provide real time tracking of the movement of goods under customs control along the Northern Corridor.   It is also hoped the initiative will minimize diversion of goods under customs control, provide timely response to transit alerts, identify supply chain trends and hence enhance the decision making process and to safeguard national security. In line with the MOU , both KRA and URA are set to ensure that there is an effective and efficient Regional ECTS system that will minimize transit diversion, safe guard against revenue loss, expedite the seamless movement of goods, promote trade facilitation and lead to reduced costs of doing business between the two states. Source: The African Business Fortune

Nairobi — The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to facilitate the establishment of a regional Electronic Cargo Tracking System (ECTS). The MoU was signed by URA Commissioner General Akol Doris and her Kenyan counterpart John Njiraini at the just concluded East African Revenue Authorities Commissioners General (EARACG) meeting, in Nairobi. Njiraini said: "The MoU will facilitate the integration of a regional ECTS to provide real time tracking of the movement of goods under customs control along the Northern Corridor, minimize diversion of goods under customs control, provide timely response to transit alerts, identify supply chain trends and hence enhance the decision making process and to safeguard national security." In line with the MoU signed over the weekend, both KRA and URA will ensure that there is an effective and efficient Regional ECTS system that will minimize transit diversion, safeguard against revenue loss, expedite the seamless movement of goods, promote trade facilitation and lead to reduced costs of doing business within both Kenya & Uganda. Source: All Africa