EAC SG woos German investors

THE Secretary General of the East African Community, Dr. Richard Sezibera has called on the German business community to explore the various investment opportunities that the bloc offers. He made the call while addressing the first EAC-German Business Forum in Berlin. “I am calling on the German business community to come to East Africa for both business and tourism to take advantage of our region’s integration,” he said a statement. He told the gathering that the region offers opportunities in ICT, finance, insurance, tourism, agro-processing, mining, infrastructure and renewable energy.The EAC is viewed as one of the successful Regional Economic Communities (RECs) in Africa. Sezibera told the Forum that was also attended by, Hans-Jurgen Beerfeltz, the German State Secretary in the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), that the World Bank Doing Business 2012 report revealed that EAC Partner States are among the fastest reforming countries in the world.“The Report acknowledges the progress made by the EAC Partner States in making the business environment better over the past five years. EAC intra-regional trade also rose to 23 per cent of the total value of exports, the highest of all the African regional economic communities,” Sezibera said.He explained the steps being taken to ease the challenges and other infrastructural deficiencies.Beerfeltz who encouraged German businessmen to invest in East Africa, said that the bloc was on the right course to economic reforms.Kenya’s Ambassador to Germany and chair of the EAC Ambassadors in Germany, Ken Nyauncho Osinde, affirmed that the EAC community in Germany was out to market the region as single tourist destination.Representing the EAC business community and accompanying the Secretary General was the East African Business Council (EABC) Executive Director, Andrew Luzze, and Dorothy Tuma of the East African Women in Business Platform.The German delegation was led by Beerfeltz, Dr. Hans-Joachim Preub, member of GIZ Board and Wolfgang Knorle, Member of the Board of the German-African Business Association.The German government supported the construction of the new EAC headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania, which will be formally inaugurated by the EAC Heads of State on November 28.

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EAC SG woos German investors