Reform and regional integration of professional services in East Africa : time for action
Langseth, Peter
Policy makers across East Africa realize that weak professional services are impeding growth in their countries. Recent studies have revealed a strong relationship between African firms' access to services and their productivity. The East African governments have now committed themselves to reforming their professional services along with other backbone services like telecommunications, banking and transport. This will include creating a more integrated regional market, and, to initiate this push, in 2009 the five East African heads of state - Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda, adopted the common market protocol to begin the integration process in professional and other services. The East African governments have asked the World Bank for assistance in fixing the large gaps in information on policies and market conditions in professional services, especially accounting, engineering, and legal services. This report is a first step towards that aim. It will serve as a background document for meetings and workshops at the country and regional level, where regulators, professional associations, business representatives, negotiators and other stakeholders will confirm and deepen the information, then plan concrete steps for reform and regional integration.
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