The East African Business Council(EABC) is calling for a coordinated approach on Covid-19 measures to spur economic recovery and growth in the East Africa region.
EABC Chairman Nicholas Nesbitt noted that the EAC bloc should work to attract international investors and embark on joint regional investments in the vaccine manufacturing industry for quick economic recovery.
Nesbitt said that joint EAC investment offers a larger pool of capital resources, expertise and market.
Low access to vaccines, slow vaccine roll-out and potentially high cost of vaccinations risk holding back the recovery of EAC economies.
The EAC Gross Domestic Product growth is projected at 3.5 per cent in 2021 and 4.7 per cent in 2022 according to the Africa Development Bank.
The Board directed the EABC Secretariat to champion advocacy on the adoption of open skies and One Network Area to reduce the cost of doing business in the region.
Open Skies attract regional tourism and improve consolidation of EAC exports to overseas markets such as horticulture.
This is critical to support the resilience and recovery of tourism, hospitality and transport sectors highly impacted by the pandemic.
EAC Partner States lost an estimate of $4.2billion of international tourism receipts in the year 2020.
EABC CEO, John Bosco Kalisa said the Council has embarked on a regional SMEs platform to champion advocacy on access to markets, finance and roll out business development services to support resilience and expansion of SMEs across EAC borders and continental market of 1.3 billion consumers.
Kalisa stated that monitoring and quick elimination of Non-Tariff Barriers is important to facilitate cross-border trade and investment.
Harmonization of taxes, standards & SPS Measures, liberalizing of services, strengthening of regional value chains for industrialization, adoption of digital tools, e-commerce are among other priority areas to boost intra-EAC trade and investment.
“Encouraging investments in environment conservation, adaptability and sustainability to push forward the EAC bloc into the blue and greener economy,” said Kalisa.
Kalisa also noted the need to fast-track inter-connectivity and development of multimodal water transport infrastructure to enhance the competitiveness and increase EAC exports to the Democratic Republic of Congo and other neighboring countries linked by Lake Tanganyika, Kivu, Victoria, Albert and River Nile and Kagera.
