EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY ORGANISED SECOND REEGIONAL INVESTMENT CONFERENCE KICKS OFF IN NAIROBI ON WEDNESDAY
Business News By Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City
The second East African Community Investment will kick off at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre in Nairobi on Wednesday. It will be attended by delegates from more than thirty countries.
Observers say, the conference will create an opportunity for the East African Community to appraise itself in the deliberations of its first major investment held in Kigali, Rwanda last year, where member states adopted a strategic plan to improve the region’s infrastructure.
The timing of this important conference is underscored by expectations that the region economies will finally be integrated by the end of this year.
Under the theme, ”Invest in EAC where challenges are opportunities:”, the conference focuses on energy, telecommunications, tourism and mining.
Other areas of focus are infrastructure development, banking and financial services, manufacturing, agriculture ad agro-processing.
There are signs of renewal confidence among international investors in East Africa as a business hub in the past few months. Foreign businesses have been streaming into the region. Banking and financial services, manufacturing and mining and other sectors are attracting West African and Asian investors.
The conference, which kicks off on July 29 and winds up on 31st is organized by the EAC Secretariat in collaboration with the government of Kenya, East African Business and the Investment Agencies of the East African Community partner states. The EAC Investment Conference is an annual event held in rotation in the EAC Partner States of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi since the inaugural of one that was held in Kigali, Rwanda in June 2008.
The Kigali conference attracted 1,090 delegates in total. This figure includes 404 from EAC states other than Rwanda, 253 delegates from outsider the EAC region. The investment conference is the premier forum for the EAC Secretariat and the partner states to promote the region as a single market and investment destination
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The event is expected to bring together policy makers, business leaders and the regional and international investment to discuss the investment outlook of the EAC region and promote investment opportunities.
This investment conference comes at a time when the global economy is undergoing major downturn trends. Giants of the business world are going into recession and turning to governments for bailouts or stimulus packages. In the face of these challenges, the EAC is maintaining a strategic posture towards stronger political, economic and business environment to weather the storm. Indeed, the EAC countries remain on a rapid growth path and with a number of African countries, are in the middle of the strongest economic recovery in the past forty years.
Since the re-inauguration of the EAC, and the setting up of the EAC Secretariat, harmonization of investment policies, incentives and laws of the partner states has been going on for some times under the auspices of the EAC secretariat. Some aspects have been harmonized and include the investment approval requirements, export processing zones and free access regulations, corporate tax and several other incentives.
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leooderaomolo@yahoo.com
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From: Leo Odera Omolo
Date: Jul 27, 2009 1:07 AM
Subject: MAJOR INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT CONFERENCE OPENS ON WEDNESDAY