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Our Mission: To bring together a critical mass of the best business minds in our region to engage with key public sector players with a view to catalyzing true economic transformation of East Africa. The East African Business Summit brings together the region’s best business minds from Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda to engage with thought leaders, practitioners and development actors. At this year’s summit more than 100 business leaders from across East Africa will gather in Kenya at Fairmont Mt. Kenya Safari Club, to deliberate on how the region could embrace innovation to grow the market. This year’s theme is ‘Innovation - A catalyst for growth ‘The Convenors of the Summit Citibank N.A., Deloitte, KPMG, Nation Media Group, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Serena Hotels, are inviting top executives to deliberate on a series of topics and issues relevant to making East Africa globally competitive. The Summit this year is pointedly different in that executives will be exposed to the latest management thinking from some of the foremost business minds, including amongst others: How it all began… The Summit was born in 2002 when the leaders of the six convening firms brought together leaders in business and industry. This initiative came out of the realization that private sector needs to be actively driving the agenda for change to solve the regions common difficulties if the region was to grow economically. Essentially, the private needs to play a key role in policy direction across the region. The six Convenors came together to bring about this change and out of that came the Summit. The East African Business Summit aims to deliver new knowledge and tangible investment and policy suggestions for application by governments and businesses with a view to finding ways to embrace innovation across all sectors of East Africa’s economies. Past Summits have come up with implementable plans , registering success in various sectors including enhancing telecommunication, value addition in agriculture, investment in infrastructure, setting up of business process outsourcing stations, to mention a few. The Summit is also a great place to socialize and network with peers and this year, there will be an exciting entertainment agenda to round off what promises to be a successful summit. The East African Business Summit Launch Breakfast is hosted by the Summit's convenors to brief all invited Delegates on the summits program , preparations for the event and announce sponsorship opportunities. Past summits have come up with implementable plans , registering success in various sectors including enhancing telecommunication, value addition in agriculture, investment in infrastructure, setting up of business process outsourcing stations, to mention a few. A summary of the previous Summit outcomes are highlighted below: 2002 Summit November 3rd to 5th , 2002, Mount Kenya Safari Club , Nanyuki Theme: Partnership for Growth At the first Summit the delegates identified a number of specific areas of intervention in which they felt they could contribute to the removal of impediments grouped under the headings of Finance, Trade, Information and Communications Technology, Infrastructure, the Investment Climate and Security and Governance. The Summit committed to engaging positively to ensure the following outcomes: 1.A need to develop a regional financial Services Association 2.Conclude agreement on the Customs Union 3.Strengthen and revalidate the East African Business Council 4.Install a fibre-optic maritime cable covering the Eastern seaboard of Africa; develop a Values Charter and a Code of Ethics tor the region’s business. 5.Produce two regional documents: a)Agenda for East Africa and b)Vision 2020 2003 Summit September 18th to 21st , 2003 Mount Kenya Safari Club, Nanyuki, Kenya Theme: Integrating the Reconstruction Effort; The Private Road to Economic Recovery Key sectors covered were: Health and education; Security and Governance; small and medium enterprises; Transport and Environment sectors. Outcomes from working groups were: 1.Set up a task force to finalize the setting up of a fibre optic cable link extending from Arusha and Namanga to Mombasa to link up with the maritime cable. 2.Setting up of a Technology Mission and processing factories that blend and package Kenyan tea for export. 3.Set up a working group that will create a re-forestation program with specific targets to increase tree cover in East Africa. 4.Demonstrate to the Kenyan government the costs and consequences to business and to the wider economy of converting from the National I Hospital Insurance Fund to the National Social Health Insurance Scheme. 5.Create a partnership between the private sector, the police, judiciary and Customs to improve efficiency in their operations so as to promote a more enabling investment environment. 6.Promote SMEs from within the Summit by increasing contracts with them by at least 20% with one of the main tools to achieving this being the creation of a web-page within the EABC website providing information on high-performing SMEs. 7.Establish a task force to formulate, align and implement an East African Regional Transport policy with private sector participation. 2004 Summit Sept 22nd to 24th , 2004 Ngurdoto Mountainlodge Arusha, Tanzania Theme: Positioning Africa in the Global Economy The two previous Summits identified critical factors which inhibit economic growth in the region and made recommendations on how these may be overcome. At different forums, the region's governments, development partners and other stakeholders identified these and related challenges as being necessary to overcome if meaningful development is to be realised in our region. Delegates to this Summit were challenged to identify why despite these common objectives, overcoming the challenges which inhibit economic growth appears to grow ever more distant. From simple shared objectives such as better telecommunications in the region, to improved roads and railways, better environment management and greater employment opportunities for the region's youth, these shared objectives remain unrealized. Why is it that despite the huge costs these obstacles levy on businesses operating in the region, they remain an immovable obstruction to the region's governments? Delegates to this Summit were asked to: 1.Reflect on the successes and failures in attaining the proposals and objectives adopted at the previous Summits. 2.Identify 6 key factors that have worked against the realization of these objectives. They were asked to rethink the strategies needed to implement the recommendations previously identified. 3.Appraise the role of government and other stakeholders and the methods they use in facilitating or obstructing the implementation of these objectives. 4.Critique the role that national and regional political agendas and government structures play in obstructing the rapid adoption of these objectives. 5.Establish a monitoring mechanism that enables the private sector to evaluate government progress on these actions and engage, the relevant public officers on an ongoing basis to ensure that commitments translate into verifiable actions 6.Identify the unique comparative advantages of the region, how to build on them and how to use branding to position East Africa as a global market leader in these areas. 2008 Summit 17th to 19th July2008 Kampala Serena Hotel, Kampala Theme: Enhancing East Africa’s Competitiveness Outcomes Set up of regional Round tables as a way of engaging, finding solutions and influencing cross cutting regional issues. The meeting identified a number of “low-hanging fruits” that the regional “ Round Table” should prioritize. These were: 1.Engage the presidents of each country quarterly on major issues affecting the competitiveness of our region, learn from each country’s Round Table groupings and form a harmonized approach to overarching issues. 2. The urgent extension of working hours (preferably to 24 hours a day) at border crossings points to speed up the movement of goods and services 3.The urgent updating, signing and implementation of double taxation protocols among the East African states; 4.The urgent removal of barriers to the free movement and employment of East African human capital within East Africa. Long term Goals 1.The improvement of the railway and road networks, ports, and energy
East African Business Summit 2011 Fairmont Mount Kenya Safari Club, Nanyuki, Kenya November 17th - 20th 2011 2011 Theme: “INNOVATION: A Catalyst for Accelerated Growth in East Africa”. At this year’s summit 100 business leaders from across East Africa will gather in Kenya at Fairmont Mt. Kenya Safari Club, to deliberate on how the region can embrace innovation to grow the market. The Conveners of the Summit Citibank N.A., Deloitte, KPMG, Nation Media Group, PWC and Serena Hotels, are inviting top executives to deliberate on a series of topics and issues relevant to making East Africa globally competitive. Some of the key topics to be discussed at the summit are:
Contacts For enquiries and information about the Summit please contact: EABS Secretariat (at KPMG Nairobi) Robert Onyango This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it chair, Steering committee M: 0725749324 T: +254 20 2806229 |
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