THE quest to bring standard-gauge rail to Africa has gained traction following an announcement from the Tanzanian government that it is seeking bidders for the construction of the final portion of the new line that it plans to build between Dar es Salaam and Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The railway is to be built in four phases and will give the landlocked central African countries their first through rail link to the Indian Ocean. Tanzania is the latest African country to embark on building a new standard-gauge railway. A brand new standard-gauge line running parallel to the old colonial-era railway in Kenya is well-advanced, while a Chinese-built electrified line linking Djibouti with Addis Ababa in Ethiopia was opened in October.The 2190km line, which is part of the East African Railways Master Plan to link Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, will run from Dar es Salaam to the lake port of Mwanza on Lake Victoria, following roughly the same route as the metre-gauge Tanganyika Railway built by the German colonial authorities at the beginning of the 20th century. Known after Tanzanian independence as the Central Line, the railway has suffered from a lack of maintenance in recent decades, leaving the country without reliable rail transport between its lake ports and the sea. Construction of the new railway, currently known as the SGR, will be partly financed by a $US 7.6bn loan from China’s Export-Import Bank (Exim) secured last July. The final section of the railway is...

The Communications Authority of Kenya Director General Francis Wangusi said five East African Community (EAC) member states are currently holding talks in order to expand the One Area Mobile Network to cover all the member states. Wangusi told a regional internet forum in Nairobi that current members Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan are in talks for Tanzania and Burundi to join them, so that all calls amongst those countries are treated as domestic calls. Wangusi said during the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Capacity Building Workshop for Africa’s Governmental Advisory Committee Representatives that an enlarged One Area Mobile Network would reduce the cost of making calls across the trading bloc. He said the direct result is that the volume of inter-country calls will increase and this will help to promote EAC regional integration efforts. Wangusi said that in order for the six-member EAC bloc to become a single network, there are some hurdles that need to be overcome. The telecoms regulator noted that Tanzania and Burundi are ready to change their legislation in order to join the regional network, in view of the numerous benefits their citizens would receive. Source: Telecom Paper

IN SUMMARY TMA is funded by a range of development agencies with the aim of enhancing prosperity in the East African Community (EAC) through trade. Trade Mark East Africa (TMA) will today receive a grant of 9.8 million Euros (over Sh1 billion) from the government of Finland to enhance trade and economic integration in the region. TMA is funded by a range of development agencies with the aim of enhancing prosperity in the East African Community (EAC) through trade. “We believe that enhanced trade contributes to economic growth, a reduction in poverty and subsequently increased prosperity,” TMA said. The grant signatories will be Finland ambassador to Kenya Tarja Fernandez and TMA chief executive Frank Matsaert. TMA has been working with EAC institutions, governments, the private sector and civil society organisations to increase trade by unlocking economic potential through increased physical access to markets. In December last year, TMA signed a Sh150 million agreement with East African Tea Trade Association (EATTA) to automate tea trading at the Mombasa auction. Source: Business Daily Africa

Last week, Chinese President Xi Jinping took to the stage at the 43rd summit of the World Economic Forum, (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland. He was the first Chinese president to ever address the annual conference. At an exclusive ski resort on the Swiss Alps, President Xi, flanked by some of China’s billionaires, made a spirited defence for globalisation. He started his 54-minute address by referencing the opening of Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities. “Today, we also live in a world of contradictions,” he said. “On the one hand, growing material wealth and advancements in science and technology have seen human civilisations develop as never before. On the other hand, however, frequent regional conflicts, global challenges like terrorism and refugees, as well as poverty, unemployment and the widening income gap have added to the uncertainties of the world.” Few countries understand the import of globalisation as clearly as China does since adopting more outward-looking market reforms in 1978. The reforms, dubbed gaige kai- fang, which loosely translates to “change the system, open the door”, saw China emerge as a strategic cog in the global value chain. Economic miracle Strategic sectors of China’s economy, including manufacturing and the financial sector, opened up to international trade and foreign direct investment. The country became a major assembly outpost for everything, from iPhones to nuclear reactors. For close to 25 years straight, China’s GDP growth averaged nearly 10 per cent annually. The country accomplished what the World Bank defines as a near economic...

The East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) has urged the Council of Ministers to act decisively in checking what it called “fraudulent procurement processes” that are allegedly dogging the EAC Secretariat based in Arusha, Tanzania. Besides calling for the central decision-making and governing organ of the East African Community (EAC) to consider enacting a law on financial and procurement management as a necessity, the regional lawmakers also recommended strict compliance with the EAC financial rules and regulations and want punitive action taken against officials who violate rules and procedures. This came up as lawmakers debated a 27-page report of the Committee on Legal, Rules and Privileges on the matter of investigation of procurement of group life insurance Company for the Community. During debate, in Kampala, yesterday, there were mixed reactions although a majority lawmakers spoke strongly against alleged scams at the Secretariat, the executive organ of the Community, which is mandated to ensure that regulations and directives adopted by the Council are properly implemented. MP Abubakar Zein (Kenya) said what he read in the report was “akin to fraud, theft and defrauding the Community.” “Delay [in procurement as reported] was part of an orchestrated design. This is choreographed theft,” Zein said. “The management also ignored the legal advice of the Counsel to the Community and in so doing put the Community and those who serve it at risk.” The EAC Secretary-General, Amb. Libérat Mfumukeko, insisted that during his new term, since last year, he focused efforts on putting things right. Mfumukeko...

Since January 02, signs of bird flu were detected in Uganda where fishermen reported “mass death of wild birds” on the shores of Lake Victoria, near Entebbe, which lies near the capital Kampala. Burundi is on alert. The director in charge of animal health in the Burundian ministry of agriculture and livestock, Mr. Nsanganiyumwami Déogratias says they are aware of the presence of the disease in East African Community since Monday 16th January 2017. “We held a meeting with the minister and competent experts to impose measures to protect people against any contamination”, he says. “Uganda is not very far from Burundi and there are comings and goings of people and merchandises between the two countries. Our experts are working hard to adopt preventive measures against bird flu, which will be communicated soon”. According to Nsanganiyumwami, it is not easy to recognize the disease when it has attacked birds. He, however, advises people especially farmers, to inform immediately veterinarians in case there is a dead chicken. Bird flu also called avian flu/influenza is an infectious disease that spreads very fast among birds and can kill them. It can be transmitted to human beings, causing severe respiratory diseases that may result in death. Its symptoms in humans can vary and range from “typical” flu symptoms (fever, sore throat, muscle pain) to eye infections and pneumonia. The disease caused by the H5N1 virus is a particularly severe form of pneumonia that leads to viral pneumonia and multiorgan failure in many people who...

President Yoweri Museveni has urged the East African Legislative Assembly to force foreigners to develop the region by passing policies that will protect the region's markets. "We need to stop the importation of second hand clothes so that we can develop our textile industries," said Museveni. "When you buy second hand clothes, then you are promoting and improving the economy of the country that produces them." President Museveni urged the assembly and other organs working on the region's integration process to work, support and fast track the East African political integration because it is important for the region's strategic security and a guarantor of the future safety and security of the area. Addressing the 5th session of the 3rd Assembly of the East African Legislative Assembly at Parliamentary buildings in Kampala, Museveni noted that just like economic integration is important for the economic prosperity of the region, political federation is very crucial for strategic security of the region as well as for guaranteeing the safety of the future generations especially against the emerging world giants who continue to compete for the limited world resources. "Our current administrative structures are fragmented and very weak and we have no choice but to unite and safeguard our destiny. What will you do for example if a modern China, with its big population, becomes imperialistic in the future and want to occupy parts of Africa?" he wondered. He said the community is wealthy with a population of 162 million including South Sudan which all...

The U.S. may be a global superpower, but when it comes to trade and investment in Africa, it lags far behind. China, with $200 billion in trade with the continent, more than doubles that of the U.S. That means that while Africans paid attention to the U.S. presidential election, they were much more concerned by a slowdown in China's economy. "U.S. dynamics are far less important to us than what's happening in China," said Francois Conradie, head of research at NKC African Economics, a South African subsidiary of Oxford Economics based in Cape Town. "The biggest risk for us is Chinese demand slowing down sharply." FILE - U.S. President Barack Obama addresses the U.S.-Africa Business Forum in Washington, Aug. 5, 2014. During his presidency, Barack Obama made it a priority to try and narrow the trade gap between the U.S. and China. In 2012, he launched the Doing Business in Africa Campaign to help make the U.S. Government's trade resources more easily available to the U.S. private sector, and African public and private partners. In September 2016, he hosted the U.S. Africa Business Forum in New York where he announced $9 billion in private trade and investment with Africa. He said U.S. foreign direct investment in African countries rose by 70 percent during his time in office. "I think the key to his legacy is that he has brought trade and investment to the forefront of the U.S.-Africa policy agenda," said Witney Schneidman, senior international adviser for Africa at Covington...

East African Community (EAC) partner states will be legally obliged to collectively promote participation of women and men in regional trade and sustainable economic growth, while considering gender dimensions to personal safety in cross border trade once a new Bill is passed this month. The East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) is sitting in Kampala, Uganda to, among others; consider the EAC Gender Equality and Development Bill, 2016, which makes provision for gender equality, protection and development in many aspects of the EAC’s integration agenda. The draft seen by The New Times partly indicates that in the process of engendering trade, countries shall: support national and regional associations of women in business; address gender and non-tariff trade barriers; and ensure gender analysis in diagnostic trade integration studies and other trade impact assessments. Francine Uwera Havugimana, second vice chairperson at the Private Sector Federation (PSF), in Kigali, is concerned by how the culture myth harming women will be deflated. “As we all know that women are starting freshly, my opinion would be to set a proper policy supporting women in this long and hard journey in order to avoid disappointment,” Havugimana told The New Times on Monday. “For example, putting in place a strong policy that is well regulated where by 30% is applied for gender equality as minimum share in procurement, loan in big project, or joint venture with government in big projects for development. I think this will be the only way to build this trust among women and in...

Full completion of the Malaba border post is set for April, financiers have said, raising hope for faster clearance of goods and passenger between Kenya and Uganda. The one-stop border post has been functioning with sub optimal infrastructure since its commissioning last June. Delays in completion of the project have been occasioned by end World Bank funding in September, at a time when infrastructure for the Sh533 million project were not fully concluded. The World Bank funding was limited in time. Variations to the contract were also left without funding. Trademark East Africa (TMA) injected additional funds into the project to complete the outstanding works and variations bringing the final contract sum to Sh632 million, excluding claims. “Malaba last bits and pieces of infrastructure will be completed by March /April this year on the Kenya side while the access road to the new bridge from the Uganda side will be completed in April 2017,” said Sjoerd Visser, TMA one-stop border posts director. He said the developments would allow the use of the new dual carriage weigh bridge and separate entry as well as exit roads into Kenya and Uganda. Current tedious clearance procedures at both sides often lead to delays and congestion at the border point. To date, five one-stop border posts have been completed in East Africa including Busia, Holili Taveta, Mutukula (Uganda/Tanzania) Kagitumba Mirama Hills (Rwanda/ Uganda) and Kobero Kabanga (Burundi/Tanzania). The completed border posts are part of the 15 initiated by the East African Community (EAC) One-Stop-Border-Posts...