REGIONAL TRADE: Business community urges Kibaki to remove trade barriers

It is still more expensive to move a container from Mombasa to Kigali than to move the same container from any port of the USA to Mombasa The Rwanda private sector has requested Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki to remove existing Non Tariff Trade Barriers (NTB) along the Northern corridor in order to ensure seamless trade flow among the two nations. The request was made yesterday during the President’s working breakfast meeting with members of the private sector at Kigali Serena Hotel. Kibaki arrived in the country on Tuesday for a three-day State visit. Robert Bayigamba, the Chairman Rwanda Private Sector Federation (PSF) said that over 50 percent of Rwandese transporters, exporters and importers use the Northern Corridor. The Northern Corridor also serves Uganda, Burundi and DR Congo and is linked to northern Tanzania, Southern Sudan and Ethiopia. “Along this route, users have been encountering a number of challenges,” he said. Bayigamba cited some of these challenges as being many roadblocks along the route, axle load weights, and poor infrastructure especially the road network. Kenya is said to be the eighth principle trading partner of Rwanda, with statistics showing that last year 45 percent of the East African imports into Rwanda, came from Kenya. Rwanda’s imposts from Kenya include petroleum products, assembled trailers, footwear, plastic piping, leather, newsprint and iron sheets among others. Bayigamba said: “Our biggest challenge today Mr. President is managing the supply chain in East Africa and ensuring that there are efficiencies in place to facilitate Rwanda and Kenya to be competitive in the region and globally.” “It is still more expensive to move a container from Mombasa to Kigali than to move the same container from any port of the USA to Mombasa”. Bayigamba also noted that the old Mombasa-Nairobi road that once passed one kilometer away from the plot has since been abandoned. The new highway to Nairobi he said passes six kilometers away from the plot and is much damaged. He however said that, “trade ties between our two economies have clearly been strengthened and we have no doubt this will benefit our business community tremendously.” Kibaki said that the East African Community partner states are working on mechanisms to fast-track the implementation of agreed priority infrastructure development programmes, such as roads, railways, ports, air transport, power supply and ICT. “But as you all know, infrastructure development is costly. And the availability of financial resources remains one of the key challenges we are facing in our efforts to develop infrastructure and improve connectivity in our region,” he said. The Kenyan President noted that this situation is likely to be aggravated by the current global financial instability, which will make it more difficult for EAC states to source funds from bilateral and multilateral donors for their infrastructure projects. With regard to the port of Mombasa, Kibaki said he is aware of the concerns that have been raised regarding congestion at the Port, a situation that is negatively affecting trade and investment in the region. “The port recently implemented major changes in terms of acquisition and rehabilitation of cargo-handling equipment and marine floating crafts. This is expected to make a significant impact in addressing the problem of congestion,” he said. He added that, they have also contracted private container freight stations where freshly arriving and overstayed cargo are kept. “I want to assure you all that we are determined to address this problem conclusively so as to eliminate the persistent delays at the Port of Mombasa”. And that his government has embarked on a 24-hour operation programme at the port and reduced the number of police stops along the Northern Corridor. Ends

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REGIONAL TRADE: Business community urges Kibaki to remove trade barriers