EALA will open up dialogue about regional trade- Suleiman Shahbal

SULEIMAN SHAHBAL is an investment banker, politician and businessman. He spoke to Spice FM about why the East African Legislative Assembly needs to be more aggressive - as transcribed by ESTHER DIANAH

You campaigned for Azimio which is now a minority. With the new government in place, are we on track so far?

I think it is too early to judge. We are in the first 90 days, and this is the honeymoon period. I have seen some very decisive moves on some issues which is quite encouraging. What is important is that elections are over, we have a new administration, and we have to move on and make the best out of it. We must recognise that we have enormous economic challenges ahead and that it's time for bipartisan cooperation to move this country forward.

What decisive moves by the new government have you observed?

I am involved in the affordable housing sector, which I believe is extremely a critical goal to move our people to a major income segment. In the last administration, we were long on promises and short on delivery, so a lot of these affordable housing projects were taking too long to accomplish.

For instance, on title deeds, developers can't move forward if there is indecisiveness on title deeds. On VAT exemptions and a number of issues, the President has to move very decisively to make this happen. If he brings the same decisiveness in other critical issues, then I think we are in for a more effective government.

You have been nominated by ODM to sit on the East African Legislative Assembly. What does it take to represent us in Arusha?

Actually more than 500 people applied for the slots, but political parties chose representatives they felt qualified for the positions. What will happen next is parliament, both national assembly and the senate, will vote for the candidates.

What do legislators actually do at EALA?

They represent our country. The East Africa legislative assembly brings together representatives from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, I believe South Sudan and now even Congo will eventually be there. While we have a lot in common interests, we also have rivalries and differences between us. The East African Assembly's main objective is to find and build Common Ground amongst these East African countries.

Are hard-boiled politicians really the right people for the position in EALA? Do you consider yourself suitable for the job?

Absolutely! The two key considerations in the East African Assembly is number one, security issues and two, economic issues. We have a lot of common interests between our countries.

When you start questioning whether politicians are qualified to discuss economic issues, you really have a very low opinion of politicians. For politicians, once the politics is over and they go to Parliament, the issues they discuss are revolve around the economic social and political issues of this country. Many of them have a very good understanding of the economic issues affecting this country. We have some very brilliant and well-informed people there.

With seven members in the EAC, do you see that integration coming to fruition?

It will take time. We have a number of challenges that need to be addressed.

For me, the biggest attraction to EALA is that we have to push our economies to become exporting economies. Our export markets are not just our East African markets, our export markets have to be outside. We need to invigorate and start our special economic zones and this is something I've been talking about for the last 10 years. I am more concerned about the unemployed youth than the sensitivity of our partners. My first priority is to push the economic agenda.

Our neighbours have not been happy when Kenya signs trade agreements impacting the East Africa community, how would you balance that if you were in the Assembly?

That is why is it important to sit at a regional platform and recognize that our 2 billion dollars of trade is peanuts. Why are we focusing on small issues instead of big issues? If you are not doing serious business with me, I'll do it elsewhere, and I think that should be the driving agenda. We need to push East African Community to be more aggressive and international, rather than remaining a regional trade restriction outfit.

How will regional activities impact local policies?

The problem of farmers, whether in Tanzania Uganda or Kenya, are the same. If legislative changes are required in Kenya, probably the same are required in Tanzania. It is clearly a case of need to have a regional discussion, and not just local. If we don't have a regional discussion, we will have a situation where duty on fertilizer will be higher in Kenya than it is in Tanzania.

What then happens? It will lead to smuggling. The more reason you need a platform to discuss such issues. It is a platform for creative discussions. Disagreements are natural and we can always find common ground.

A lot of the trade barriers that we have in Africa should actually be scrapped. You know trade barriers come in when you have competing interests, but what I'm arguing is that we have more common interests than competing interests and so we should open up our borders to trade.

How do we convince our neighbours that there are advantages or disadvantages from trade links?

You know with good discussions and good dialogue, we can always find a common ground. I'm a great believer in dialogue.

There are parochial interests that don't serve neighbouring countries well. We need to remove these barriers. Azam Group of Tanzania tried very hard to enter the Kenyan market and all sorts of roadblocks were put their way, which clearly shows protective tendencies on the Kenyan side.

People are fighting to protect their own business interests, now who do I sympathize with? Do I sympathize with the Kenyan traders who want to block Tanzanians or do I sympathize with the Tanzanians who wants to enter our market?

We have had the legislative assembly for long. Why then do we still have the same problems?

I am not qualified to judge the performance of EALA. If you look at our national leadership for the past 15 years, the direction is given at the presidential level and then it goes downwards.

But the president also needs input from those who are on the lower rungs of the ladder. It is important that these issues are discussed intelligently from a well-informed perspective, hopefully at the regional assembly, and then the sentiments transmitted upwards to the presidents.