Members of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) Committee on Communication, Trade and Investment on Monday met representatives of EAC department in charge of investments and private sector promotion and discussed strategies, opportunities and challenges for investment in region.
Due to the prevalent Covid-19 pandemic that has devastated the bloc member states; the meeting was held by means of video conferencing chaired by Hon Christopher Nduwayo.
This committee last met in April when it reviewed pertinent regional trade issues, the EALA Committee is discussing implications of #COVID19 on trade & investments in Partner States and how governments are handling.
According to the scheduled meetings, on Tuesday the Committee on Agriculture, Tourism and Natural Resources will also meet via video conferencing.
Also on Tuesday, members of the Committee on Regional Affairs and Conflict Resolution are scheduled to hold discussions virtually.
Most of these meetings are being held in preparation for the 48th East African Revenue Authorities Commissioners General Assembly scheduled for Wednesday November 11th.
Themed 'Rethink, Restart and Reinvent: Our Road to Recovery', will concentrate on lessons learnt by the EAC Partner States during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the innovative approaches that will shore up revenue in the region.
Other key highlights of the meeting will include responses to Commissioners General's (CGs') directives during the 47th meeting, for the period January to June 2020, emerging issues within the Customs union, cooperation with international actors in international taxation, and induction of new CGs into the forum.
Other important areas will include feedback on review of performance of the Single Customs Territory (SCT) for the whole value chain of imports and transit goods by analyzing transit declarations right from the point of entry to the destinations. This will assist to eliminate dumping and transit diversions.
The meeting will also receive feedback on the progress on achieving a joint approach to the development of the Data Governance Policy to promote the usage of data for decision-making.
The EARACGs meeting is expected to among other discuss the modalities of how to collaborate with the EAC Secretariat to establish a Committee on Tax Affairs at the East African Community (EAC), where tax administration matters of domestic taxes, ICT and other administrative issues not related to Customs can be deliberated, among others.
The meeting comes amidst resilience test, with most countries having registered an economic slowdown due to significant scaling down of business activities attributed to COVID-19 cases reported in the Region.
The meeting will be attended by among other KRA leadership led by the Commissioners General, Office Burundais des Recettes (OBR) Commissioners General, Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) Commissioners General, South Sudan National Revenue Authority (SSNRA) Commissioners General, Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) Commissioners General, and Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) Commissioners General.
Other delegates will include representatives from a select number of observers and partners including the East African Community (EAC) Secretariat and African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) as well as JICA.
Source : https://taarifa.rw/eala-trade-committee-discusses-blocs-investment-challenges/
