EABC secures $1m for policy advocacy
East African Business Council (EABC) Chairman Dennis Karera (left) exchanges documents with the Federation of German Industries managing director Matthias Wachter after an agreement to support EABC was signed in Arusha yesterday. PHOTO|FILBERTH RWEYEMAMU
What you need to know:
The agreement signed yesterday with a German industries’ federation is meant to support the East African Community integration
Arusha. The East African Business Council (EABC) has entered into a $1 million worth of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Federation of German Industries to strengthen the former’s policy advocacy in the East African Community (EAC) integration process.
Mr Dennis Karera, the EABC chairman, signed the MoU on behalf of the council while the BDI managing director, Mr Matthias Wachter, penned the document on behalf of the Federation of the German Industries.
The MoU follows the 2015-2018 Draft Strategic Plan of the EABC highlighting a number of weaknesses in the council which could be successfully addressed in partnership with its counterpart popularly known as Bundesverband der Deutschen Industrie (BDI) in Germany.
Much as the progress of the EAC integration requires a robust private sector in terms of policy advocacy, the BDI will build the council’s capacity to lobby professionally towards obtaining a conducive legal, administrative and institutional business environment for goods, services and labour to move freely across the region.
Mr Karera believes the MoU, which is dated back to 2014 when a fact finding mission was conducted, would go along way in cementing cooperation between the EABC and the BDI by promoting business between East Africa and Germany.
He recalled that East Africa was a big consumer of durable and quality products from Germany in the past including those from automobile and pharmaceutical industries.
Mr Wachter vowed that the cooperation would fill the information gaps to enable the East African bloc, which he termed as the region of opportunity, to integrate into a global value of chain for the sake of its people.
“Regional integration is crucial for economic growth, Germany has achieved much from the EU and wants to bring in the experience and learn from the EAC, not to teach you,” he said.
With the MoU in place, the EABC will be able to provide evidence for at least three success stories in different fields of policy advocacy each year and expand its total membership base by 25 per cent from 168 to 210.
The arrangement will, among other things, develop and disseminate annual policy agenda, create technical coordination groups, develop and disseminate harmonised position papers and develop and test innovative avenues for policy advocacy ranging from policy campaigns to breakfast meetings.
