East Africa Business Council gets voice in EAC

BY BUSINESS REPORTER

THE East African Business Council can now take an active role in the East African Community (EAC) council meetings where crucial decisions affecting the bloc are made.

This comes after EABC, the umbrella organisation of the private sector in East Africa was granted legal status in EAC. The Council has been pushing for the implementation of both the Customs Union and the Common Market Protocol in the region.

The 15th Meeting of the Sectoral Council of Ministers responsible for EAC Affairs, which met in Kampala between January 23 and 27, discussed the adoption and implementation of the Framework for Private Public Dialogue Framework and adopted it on Friday.

The framework, similar to Kenya’s Public Private Partnership (PPPs), grants the EABC legal status in the EAC, and allows the private sector play a major role in implementation of the EAC decisions.

Negotiate issues

"We have approved the framework for Private Public Dialogue framework. EABC will be represented at the Council of Ministers meetings where it can negotiate issues affecting EAC, unlike in the past where they held observer status," Musa Sirma, Kenya’s Minister for EAC said in an interview.

"We have always been talking but we don’t want to do that anymore. The results of the meetings should not be on paper and that is why the private sector has a role in their implementation."

Meanwhile Sirma, who is also the chairman of the EAC Council of Ministers, said operationalisation of the Customs union is running on schedule.

External tariffs

"We are implementing the Customs Union through the application of the Common External Tariffs."

The decision to approve the framework was made last week following a meeting between EABC and President Kibaki, who is also the chairperson of the EAC Heads of State Summit.

In the meeting, EABC called for a dialogue framework — which was developed between May and November 2011 by the EAC Partner States — be adopted by the Council of Ministers and its implementation commence in the coming quarter.

EABC Vice Chairman Keli Kiilu, lauded the decision saying the position would allow the EABC to play a leading economic role in the EAC integration process.

The issue of implementing a framework that will facilitate dialogue between the private sector, civil society and other non-state actors, and the need to execute decisions that have been approved by EAC was also discussed in the meeting.

The Council also discussed matters pertaining to the creation of a fully fledged customs union, infrastructure issues, EAC Polythene Control Bill and Compensation to Rwandese, and the plight of Ugandan traders who lost property during the 2008 Post-poll violence.