JOHANNESBURG, October 1 (ANA) – Doing business in East Africa and the opportunity for international businesses to invest in the region is an attractive prospect after a new study outlined how East African countries rank among the top 20 global economies with potential to grow their trade volumes.
This despite the region’s existing trade disputes and prevalence of non-tariff barriers (NTBs).
The British Standard Chartered Bank undertook the new study, placing Kenya as the leading country in the region with regard to establishing the relevant foundations to support future trade growth such as physical and digital infrastructure, e-commerce and ease of doing business, according to the East African.
The study, dubbed Trade 20 Index, sampled 66 markets globally and measured their performance based on three equally weighted pillars, namely economic dynamism, trade readiness and export diversity.
Nairobi was followed closely by Uganda and Tanzania while Rwanda and Burundi were not investigated in the study. Globally, Kenya ranked second after China with Uganda and Tanzania coming at 17th and 19th positions respectively.
Nairobi is the only East African Community country that has shown remarkable improvement in trade readiness while proving that investment in infrastructure and the business environment is paying dividends.
Tanzania, meanwhile, is attracting direct foreign investment as well as export and gross domestic product growth. - African News Agency (ANA)
