EAC private sector to boost services industry
Graduands during a graduation ceremony at Makerere University. Uganda has a comparative advantage in the services industry of education. FILE PHOTO
What you need to know:
- Regional partner states are re-examining the services component of the Common Market, Dorothy Nakaweesi writes.
In the last few decades, the services sector has been a significant driver of gross domestic product (GDP) growth, trouncing the industrial sector in both developed and developing countries.
Today, services account for the largest share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in most countries. This fact also holds true for most members of the EAC.
In Uganda, services sector has contributed 54.9 per cent; both Kenya and Rwanda’s GDP’s growth receive about 47.5 per cent while Tanzania is rated at 43.6 per cent and Burundi is at 40.4 per cent.
Despite this significance, trade in services currently does not live up to its full potential.
This is why partner states are devising means to re-examine the services component of the Common Market which is a critical juncture to ensure that the private sector is able to gain these benefits.
Ms Lillian Awinja, the executive director East African Business Council (EABC), shares: “We want to improve trade in services in the East African region through developing tangible positions for each sector and come up with feasible advice for policy-makers to facilitate trade in the region.”
Ms Awinja said to take this further; focus will be put on several sectors within the Common Market Protocol mainly looking at business; communication; distribution; education; finance; tourism; and transport services.
“We want to make sure that these sectors identified are commercially meaningful. We also want to make sure the unnecessary regulatory restrictions and bottlenecks to cross-border services transactions are removed to facilitate free movement of labour,” Ms Awinja added.
Responding to this regional campaign, Ms Brenda Opus, senior export marketing executive at Uganda Export Promotion Board, a government body responsible for promoting this sector, said a lot has been done especially in education as a service in the region.
Ms Opus said: “Uganda will embark on strategies to promote the services sector especially in areas where Uganda has a comparative advantage like education services exports.”
