The East African Community Secretary-General, Peter Mathuki, on Wednesday, August 18, urged the private sector to drive the trade and investment agenda by establishing partnerships with their governments to fast track infrastructure development. He was speaking during a CEOs engagement roundtable with business leaders in Arusha, Tanzania, convened by the East African Business Council (EABC). Mathuki said: “Private sector needs to move beyond advocacy and liaise with the Government in providing solutions to some of the trade issues being faced across EAC Partner States.” The Secretary-General also urged the private sector to take advantage of ongoing bilateral engagements between partner states to promptly resolve trade disputes so as to increase trade volumes among regional states. He called upon the business community to promptly harmonize their positions on trade agreements at the national level before engaging their counterparts in other Partner States to fast-track trade deliberations. “Regular consultations and dialogues within the national private sector bodies are critical in building consensus within a Partner State. Divergent positions within a country will only delay in concluding trade deliberations at the regional level, further delaying implementation of regional trade policies,” Mathuki said. John Bosco Kalisa, the EABC CEO, urged the business community to make use of the recently launched Technical Working Group, and share issues impeding trade and investment across the region so that the committee can deal with them. He said the TWG is meant to strengthen collaboration and partnership between the EAC and EABC in order to improve the business environment in line with the objectives of the fifth EAC Development Strategy and the EAC Vision 2050 for sustainable development and socio-economic transformation of the EAC region. “I urge all our members to always submit to us some of the key issues that impede the free flow of trade and investment across the region to EABC so the committee can deal with them,” Kalisa said. Kalisa also put emphasis on several issues including EAC government-private sector collaboration in designing and implementation of business rebound strategies to boost intra-EAC trade and investment. Fast track airspace liberalisation Kalisa also appealed to the Secretary-General to, among others, fast-track airspace liberalisation and reduce the transaction costs related to travel. The EABC is continuously urging the partner states to fast-track the finalization and implementation of regional regulations on liberalization of air transport services, in a move set to lower flight costs and in turn reduce the cost of doing business in the region. Latest findings by the EABC, show that air-transport liberalization is set to lower flight costs by 9% and see a 41% increase in flight frequencies. Despite the commitments of the EAC partner states at the international level on liberalization of access to air transport markets in Africa and EAC integration efforts through the Common Market, the domestic air transport sector remains protected, reducing accessibility and increasing air transport cost at the expense of potential users. “Liberalization of air services in the region is set to increase traffic volumes, improve connectivity and lower air transport fares. This will in turn increase trade and tourism, inward investment and productivity growth,” Kalisa said.
