Welcome Message From The Chairman Welcome to EABC Website. This site will provide you with regular updates on the integration process of five East African Community (EAC) Partner-States, efforts being done by EABC to promote an enabling environment for the businesses to grow and thrive in East Africa and how EABC is involved in facilitation and promotion of all aspects of private sector development in East Africa. We will also provide you with information about EABC member events and as well as recent events in regional and global trade. This website will contain information of policy issues relevant to the business community. Essentially, it will be a tool to convey fast-track information on the meetings related to trade at the regional level, proceedings from the Working Group meeting and reports from executive committee meetings as well as trade statistics. We will develop it into an interactive tool to enable exchange of ideas between and among various users. Linked to the website is our electronic newsletter, EABC Newsletter, which we will update on monthly basis. The past one year has been quite an eventful one for EABC. The growth in membership has been quite remarkable, from 71 last year to over 100 as at June, 2008– and is a recognition of the work EABC has been doing in the field of lobbying work on Customs Union, Non-tariff barriers and Top level lobbying. The signing of the East African Customs Union Protocol on March 1, 2004 was a watershed for the economies of East Africa. Once the customs comes into force, it will turn East Africa into a larger and more viable trading bloc and put the region on even better trade-footing with other nations. The Customs Union now in its third year of implementation will open up more opportunities for the private sector in East Africa. We are indeed elated by the entry of Rwanda and Burundi into the EAC. This will increase the market for EAC which has a vast population of about 110 million people. The bottom line of all our efforts is to make East Africa as a region more competitive, especially to reduce the costs of doing business for all of us! East Africa has the potential of becoming an economic tiger and even rivaling the far east! As a business person you are certainly interested in knowing how you and your company can benefit from EABC. Our member services range from lobbying to business cooperation with overseas entrepreneurs. Among the benefits that our members derive from our partnership are
As part of our ongoing campaigns to make EAC a single trade and investment area that is truly competitive in the multilateral trading regime, we will to continue being involved in negotiations aimed at achieving the following: -
We plan a number of activities this year including working with our partners EAC to organise a successful CONCLAVE meeting in Kampala and an Investment Mission to Washington later in the year. We will also continue with the overseas business cooperation with Germany and Sweden. Let us all work hand in hand to make the dream of a united and competitive East Africa a reality! Thank you Mr. Reginald Mengi 2008 - 2009 |