The East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) is urging the Private Sector to take advantage of the Common Market Protocol to enhance economic integration of the EAC region.
Consequently, the EAC Partner States have been encouraged to rid the region of Non-Tariff Barriers to spur a conducive environment for businesses to thrive.
EALA Speaker, Hon Abdirahin H. Abdi made the remarks at a dinner hosted for EALA members by the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) and Kenya’s Ministry of East African Community at the Inter-Continental hotel in Nairobi yesterday.
”I urge the business community to network closely with legislators”, Hon Abdi said, pledging that EALA would continue to push their case for a “level playing field” as it enacts legislation.
Speaking at the function, Kenya’s Assistant Minister for the EAC, Hon Peter G. Munya said the government had set aside Kshs 100 Million towards facilitating the talks on Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs). He hailed the legislators for the legislative and oversight function and for adhering to the principle of rotation when holding meetings. .
The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of East African Community, Mr. David Nalo, stated that a number of legislative pieces as mirrored in the Common Market protocol were set for inclusion in the newly launched Kenya government’s Rapid Results Initiative (RRI) that is charged with the important task of amending national legislation. The work is expected to be completed in the next three months.
On his part, Chairman of the Kenya Association of Manufacturers Jaswinda Bedi called on the EAC to speed up harmonization of laws and implementation of a number of decisions including entry in to force of the double taxation agreement. He further urged the Partner States to harmonize VAT and institute measures to check on the existing gaps in the Customs Union. The business community challenged EALA to look in to these areas to enable the realization of “an EAC without borders”.
EALA were also hosted to a dinner by the Directors and Management of the Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) on January 27, 2010. Hon Catherine Kimura, MP EALA and Board Member at the KCB, encouraged the banking sector to tap the small and middle enterprise bloc, which comprised of a wide market. “In this time and age, financial services has no borders and it is imperative for the banking sector to come up with products that are attractive to the SMEs”, Hon Kimura said.
KCB is one of the oldest Banks having been established in Zanzibar in 1895. To date, KCB has 217 outlets with 168 branches in Kenya. Tanzania has 11 branches, Uganda 14 and Rwanda 9. The group also has operations in Southern Sudan with 15 branches.
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