BY GRACE MACHA IN ARUSHA
The director general of the East African Community (EAC) Customs and Trade Directorate Kenneth Bagamuhunda will head a special task force to promote the private sector.
This follows the creation of a Technical Working Group (TWG) for the purpose by the EAC and the East African Business Council (EABC).
The team is meant to spearhead initiatives that will benefit the private sector initiatives in the region and enable it to play a bigger role.
"The Group is tasked to raise the visibility of the EAC and provide a platform for addressing concerns raised by the business community in the region",remarked EAC secretary general Peter Mathuki.
It was launched in Arusha at the weekend and will work under the EAC secretariat and the EABC, an apex body of private sector associations with observer status to the EAC.
Dr. Mathuki urged the TWG to reach out to every business person "whether large or small" by putting in place a hotline for receiving issues raised by stakeholders.
He added that the EAC's focus would henceforth be placing the private sector in the heart of the integration process.
“We are on the threshold of a new dawn that will take the Community to the people. Whatever we do, it must result in something tangible,” he said.
He noted that only "a cohesive and organised" private sector in East Africa would be in position to take advantage of the business opportunities that would take the region to another level.
The TWG should, among other things, come up with a harmonised framework for a collective response by the partner states to COVID-19 in the region.
A collective response in the region will guarantee economic recovery in a post-COVID era, said the EAC boss.
In his remarks, East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) Speaker Martin Ngoga said the private sector was taking its rightful place in regional integration through the signing of the TWG.
“We have an obligation under the Treaty as EAC leaders to strengthen the role of the private sector in the integration process. I am afraid that so far, we haven’t fulfilled this obligation as required of us,” he pointed out.
He implored that the private sector through EABC should work closely with the Assembly "to ensure that the necessary legal framework is put in place to facilitate the development of the private sector".
EABC Executive Director John Bosco Kalisa said the TWG would identify issues that hinder the free movement of goods in the region and have them resolved on a monthly basis.
He said in addition to identifying the issues impeding intra-EAC trade, the TWG should come up with solutions instead of always waiting for the Council and Summit to resolve such matters.
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