By Staff Writer<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
East African Business Council (EABC), in partnership with the EAC Secretariat and GIZ, gathered private sector leaders from all eight EAC Partner States to validate a regional policy advocacy agenda aimed at dismantling trade barriers and expanding the services sector across the East African Community.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n The draft regional policy advocacy agenda was developed following successful national consultations that examined the state of\u00a0trade in services liberalization\u00a0and outlined key proposals to eliminate barriers.<\/p>\n Among the key recommendations is the establishment of an\u00a0institutionalized dialogue mechanism\u00a0between the private sector and governments to enhance policy engagement.<\/p>\n In his opening remarks, during the two-day Regional Validation Meeting,\u00a0Mr. Stuart Mwesigwa, Goodwill Ambassador of EABC, emphasized the importance of the services sector, stating,\u00a0\u201cWith services contributing between 40-55% of the region\u2019s GDP, the sector holds immense promise in fostering sustainable development, investment, and job creation.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Mr. Sofian Dahmani\u00a0from the\u00a0European Union Delegation\u00a0highlighted that the services sector accounts for\u00a0about 70% of the EU\u2019s GDP\u00a0and\u00a033% of total trade in Europe.<\/p>\n He further noted that the\u00a0EU-GIZ Project on Leveraging Integration Frameworks for Trade in Services and Civil Society Organizations in the EAC (LIFTED)\u00a0will enhance services liberalization, boost exports at both the EAC and continental levels, and strengthen trade ties with the EU.<\/p>\n He reiterated the EU\u2019s commitment to supporting the\u00a0EAC services market\u00a0through the removal of barriers, capacity building for the private sector to advocate for market access, and initiatives to enhance business competitiveness, inclusivity, and sustainable economic growth.<\/p>\n Ms. Estella Aryada,\u00a0GIZ Component Lead Trade in Services\u00a0underscored the transformative role of services, stating that\u00a0sectors such as marketing, design, and logistics drive innovation, manufacturing, and exports, while\u00a0health and education services improve well-being and sustainable development.<\/p>\n She emphasized that\u00a0liberalization of services is crucial for boosting investment and economic growth across all sectors.<\/p>\n Ms. Aryada also reaffirmed\u00a0GIZ\u2019s commitment\u00a0to supporting the private sector in establishing an\u00a0institutionalized dialogue mechanism\u00a0for trade in services, aimed at removing regulatory barriers and streamlining services trade across the region.<\/p>\n Ms. Annette Kenganzi,\u00a0EAC Senior Export Promotion Officer, expressed optimism that the proposed institutionalized mechanism would be integrated into both\u00a0national and regional trade committees, feeding into\u00a0Ministerial-level discussions at the Sectoral Council on Trade, Industry, Finance, and Investment.<\/p>\n She further highlighted that the mechanism will\u00a0support the implementation of the EAC Trade in Services Strategy\u00a0and drive forward key policy reforms for enhanced regional trade.<\/p>\n The\u00a0EABC Regional Policy Advocacy Agenda on Trade in Services\u00a0serves as blue print to ensure that the private sector has a\u00a0structured, coordinated, and influential\u00a0role in shaping the trade in services landscape within the\u00a0East African Community (EAC).<\/p>\n The agenda outlines several key priorities, including improving\u00a0data collection and market intelligence\u00a0to support informed policy decisions, enhancing\u00a0services sector competitiveness and export readiness, and accelerating\u00a0services integration and regulatory reforms\u00a0to remove trade bottlenecks.<\/p>\n It plans to addresses\u00a0investment barriers, taxation challenges, and immigration restrictions, particularly those limiting the movement of skilled professionals within the region.<\/p>\n The agenda outlines key sector-specific advocacy areas and recommendations crucial for boosting trade in services.<\/p>\n These include the accelerated implementation of Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRAs) to ease the movement of professionals under business services, reducing costs and improving the affordability of communication, harmonizing regulations, and simplifying market entry requirements for distribution services.<\/p>\n The recommendations also include: harmonizing financial regulations for banking and finance sector, opening skies, streamlined air access, and visa regulations for tourism, addressing road freight costs and infrastructure gaps in the transport and logistics sector, as well as harmonized policies to facilitate cross-border mobility for education.<\/p>\n To further deepen regional integration, the\u00a0EAC has committed to negotiating five additional service sectors:\u00a0Energy services, Environmental services, Health and social services, Construction and related engineering services, and Recreation, cultural, and sporting services.<\/p>\n The agenda also prioritizes the\u00a0development of private sector positions for each sector\u00a0to ensure private sector interests are well represented in the liberalization process.<\/p>\n The private sector leaders also visited\u00a0Roofings Group production plant in Namanve and discussed interlinkages of the manufacturing and services sector.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Staff Writer East African Business Council (EABC), in partnership with the EAC Secretariat and GIZ, gathered private sector leaders from all eight EAC Partner States to validate a regional policy advocacy agenda aimed at dismantling trade barriers and expanding the services sector across the East African Community. The[Read More…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":34177,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Trade.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34176"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34179,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34176\/revisions\/34179"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}