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East Africa: Rwanda Lifts Work Permits for EAC
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East African Business Week (Kampala)
3 December 2007
Posted to the web 3 December 2007
Edris Kisambira
Kampala
Rwanda has announced a revolutionary move that will see work permit requirements and employment restrictions on professionals wanting to work in the East African country removed.
The thinking behind this intriguing step that Rwanda is taking is to tap into the talent and professionals that exist elsewhere in the East African Community (EAC) member states of Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya and Burundi.
Rwanda President Paul Kagame said East Africa has talent and professionals, and that there is need for African authorities to prevent brain drain by putting in place mechanisms that encourage African professionals to work at home.
"We in Rwanda are facilitating this by removing work permits and employment restrictions on professionals and others to work in our country," Kagame told delegates attending the Commonwealth Business Forum (CBF) in Kampala.
Kagame said the decision has been made in the spirit of the EAC common market, which is expected to come into force by 2009 as East Africa moves towards a political union.
The EAC common market will formalise the free movement of goods, services and people. Rwanda, together with Burundi is the newest member of the revamped EAC, having been officially admitted in June.
"We want to become home to entrepreneurs who transform agricultural produce into commercially viable goods; who develop tourism into dynamic clusters that generate wealth....who utilise ICT to create export-oriented service industries," Kagame told participants.
The CBF is part of activities that lead up to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) that ended in Kampala yesterday. Rwanda, a former colony of Belgium, has applied to join the Commonwealth (a grouping of states that were colonised by the British).
Kagame spoke at length about the factors that are preventing further growth in the region.
On that note, he called for 24-hour operation of all border crossings (customs areas) in East African states to help spur sustainable development in the region.
Kagame said unlimited operation of all customs areas can be achieved by employing talented and accountable officers to man the posts.
He pointed out long delays encountered by transporters between the coast and inland markets.
"A lorry of commercial goods traveling inland to coastal gateways can take anywhere from five days to two weeks depending on "good luck"......the reverse journey from the coast to inland markets is equally problematic, not least given the onerous clearances and checks required for imported products," he said.
Kigali, the capital of Rwanda lies some 1,500 kilometres away from Mombasa by road.
"We must use ICT to make border clearances a rapid one-stop-shop exercise... intra-regional trade as well as improved access to global markets will undoubtedly provide a launching pad for our economic takeoff," Kagame told government and business leaders.
In a speech titled 'Critical Steps Towards a Competitive East Africa', Kagame said that development of infrastructure was equally vital to enhance coast-inland accessibility.
He cited some of the problems encountered along the routes as legal border crossings with most of them closed at night, ad hoc and illegal checkpoints, impassable sections of the road network, and congested port facilities.
Kagame who is also expected to attend the high level Commonwealth Heads of State and Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Kampala later this week thanked the Forum, for bringing together business and government leaders, to explore ways of making East Africa competitive in the commonwealth and global contexts.
Early in the year though, the Kenya government announced plans to launch a 24-hour service at its side of the Malaba border post.
When launched, the service will be part of a pilot programme in the on-going reforms to ease trade within the region. It is not clear whether the Uganda government has similar plans on its side of the same border.
Currently the two key border posts between Kenya and Uganda; Malaba and Busia, open between 4.00am and 10.00pm.
This mode of operation is responsible for delays in clearance of goods at both borders.
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On a good note though, both Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) launched a data exchange computer system that links the two agencies for faster clearance of customs issues.
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| Copyright © 2007 East African Business Week. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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