EAC Director of Productive Sectors, Dr. Nyamajeje Weggoro, today called for better coordination and prudence in management of mineral resources in the region.
He said at the opening of a two-day expert group consultative workshop on Development and Promotion of Extractive Industries and Mineral Value Addition in the EAC region at the Arusha Hotel.
“The East African region is endowed with immense natural resources in various forms. However, these resources which indeed have high potential to generate wealth and contribute to social-economic transformation of EAC economies, remain largely underutilized, while in some cases are over exploited without commensurate gains accruing to the people of region,” stated Dr. Weggoro.
Dr. Weggoro made note of the EAC Industrialization Strategy which sets to facilitate structural transformation of EAC economies through diversification and value addition.
In this regard, the strategy identifies strategic sectors namely, extractive and mineral processing; petro-chemicals and gas processing; fertilizers and agro-chemicals among others.
“In order to ensure efficient development of downstream and upstream strategic industries that rely on the mining sector, it is crucial to put in place appropriate regulatory and policy frameworks.
Such frameworks should aim at enabling the region to maximize on the resource rents from mineral extraction but at the same time facilitate the creation of new employment opportunities through investment in value addition and mineral processing industries”, he stressed.
The development of strategic regional industries/value chains, particularly, extractive and mineral value addition industries are anticipated to spur the growth of downstream industries, create backward and forward linkages across the region, generate multiplier effects and position the region on the path of sustainable long-term growth.
Notwithstanding, there are a number of barriers and challenges standing in the way of the regions efforts to secure maximum benefits from its minerals resources and associated linkage industries.
The three key barriers worth highlighting are: lack of comprehensive and well-designed mineral resources information to support sound policy-making by government and business decision-making by prospective investors;
Inadequate enabling investment framework for the development of extractive and mineral value addition industries; and weak capacity, including human and institutional, for proper and effective management of the respective industries.
The expert group consultative workshop has been convened to facilitate, review and obtain feedback on draft analytical reports on the laws, regulatory and institutional frameworks for the development of extractive industries and mineral value addition in the region.
Specifically, the workshop aims at reviewing the draft reports with a view to: Examine and identify the mineral resource potential and opportunities for mineral value addition within the EAC region; Identify the existing legal, regulatory, and institutional policy frameworks in the extractive and mineral processing industries in the EAC and examine areas in which alignment of frameworks within the Community is (a) most attainable or
(b) would be most effective; explore and discuss the opportunities, challenges, constraints and linkages associated with development of strategic mineral resources for value addition investment promotion at the Partner State level and EAC regional level; and make appropriate recommendations on measures and instruments for effective development of extractive industries and mineral value addition in EAC region.
The workshop organized with technical support from the Commonwealth Secretariat has brought together experts on mining and mineral development policies; industrial development and mineral value addition; investment policies and fiscal incentives as well as legal experts on minerals laws and regulations.
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