Tanzania, Kenya agree on one-stop business centres

Tanzania, Kenya agree on one-stop business centres
Tanzania and Kenya have agreed to establish one-stop business centres at their borders points to boost trade between them.
The plan will go alongside the modernisation of ports and improvement of infrastructure aimed at expediting the creation of a more conducive environment for business persons in both countries.
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki made remarks to that effect in Dar es Salaam on Thursday night when addressing members of the business community from the two countries. The function formed part of his just-ended two-day state visit to Tanzania.
He explained that centres would be set up at Horohoro and Namanga borders and pledged full support to members of the business community in both countries.
The idea would be to help East Africa become one of the best places in the world for doing business, he said.
The Kenyan President said the two governments were determined to support businesses as a way of making them compete globally, adding that was possible only if business people from both sides improved production as well as the quality and value of their goods.
Under the improvement programme, key infrastructure like roads, railways and the Dar es Salaam and Mombasa ports are to be improved. This was meant to reduce the time spent processing the clearing of trans-border and other cargo.
President Kibaki cited high transport and power supply costs as critical challenges that ate into the ability by African countries to compete in the global market.
He underscored the need for public private partnerships to fasten infrastructure development, saying global financial difficulties might make it especially hard for developing countries to get funding and other assistance from their development partners.
East African Business Council Chairman Reginald Mengi meanwhile called for the elimination of non-tariff barriers (NTBs).
He said the barriers were among the impediments to the realisation of the integration dream of the five East African Community partner states – Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania.
The EABC chairman recommended that, together with improving the Dar es Salaam and Mombasa ports, posts at borders shared by the two countries should be transformed into full-scale business centres operating twenty hours a day.
The council had noted that the fundamentals of investment within EAC states were not accorded the respect they deserved, he pointed out.
Mengi explained that one reason for the situation was that policy changes were seldom made in a transparent and predictable manner, which adversely affected the investment environment.
"We can see lack of commitment by partner states in the EAC to live up to and uphold what has been agreed on the Common External Tariff," he said.
On a happier note, he said support from the Commonwealth Secretariat had helped the EABC take the lead in implementing the EAC's private sector development strategy.
He said the move is recognition of the role of private sector in making the integration process a reality and achieving sustainable economic development for its people.
He called on the two countries' members of the business community to take the world credit crunch as an opportunity to penetrate the European market, saying they could compete globally only if they produced more for the market and added value to their products.
EABC deputy chairman Kelly Kiilu, an official of the Kenya Private Sector Alliance, meanwhile emphasized the need for businesspeople to make optimal use of the expansive East African market.
He said the biggest hurdle to production in the EAC partner states was the high cost of electricity.
Kiilu also explained that it was important for Kenya and Tanzania to address the incessant flooding of the region with counterfeit products, most of which he said enter through ports.
Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation deputy minister Seif Idd called on the two countries to "honour" their business relations, whose origins he attributed to founding leaders Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere for Tanzania and Mzee Jomo Kenyatta for Kenya.
President Kibaki toured Zanzibar yesterday, before returning to Dar es Salaam in the evening ready for his scheduled flight back home.
source: ippmedia

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