Uganda to host EAC investment conference

(APA)-- Uganda is poised to host the third East African Community investment conference, in Kampala from 26 - 29 April, the Ugandan Investment minister Aston Kajara announced on Thursday.

The East African Community (EAC) now stands as a region that operates under a fully-fledged customs union. In November 2009, the EAC member states signed the Common Market Protocol that will commence in July this year. Kajara told the press in Kampala that ‘We are steadily moving towards a fully integrated economic community where goods, capital, labour and services will move freely without borders, and it is important to highlight to the world the abundant potential that East Africa offers today’.

The inaugural EAC investment conference was hosted by Rwanda in 2008 and brought together more than 1,000 participants under the theme, ‘Leveraging the East African Market Through Trade and Investment.’

The second annual conference, hosted by Kenya last year, brought together 2,000 participants under the theme, ‘Invest in the EAC Where Global Challenges Are Opportunities.’

Both conferences attracted local, regional and global investors and business leaders who rightly identified the vast potential that the East Africa region provides. The EAC has a population of approximately 130 million people. It also has a Gross Domestic Product of more than $60 billion. With the establishment of a fully-fledged customs union, and the July launch of the East African Common Market, the region has opened up as ‘One Market, One Destination’, for business.

The Community operates within the setting of the global environment and has faced the same challenges that have bedevilled the world in the last couple of years – climate change, food shortages, the global recession and insecurity. Additionally, the community experiences inadequate infrastructure, said the minister.

‘The third East African Community Investment Conference will endeavour to address these challenges, and to improve the business environment in the region. We have already received expressions of interest in sponsoring the conference and we want to invite more corporate and business sponsors to come on board,’ he divulged.

‘The conference will present the successes made within the community and how we can further this development with a framework owned by both the public and private sectors. This year we will highlight the public-private partnerships in order to create a market awareness of how such partnerships have reaped huge benefits for countries like South Africa, Brazil and China,’ Kajara concluded.

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