 |
| Prof Ndulu |
Tanzania
plans to start opening up its capital account this year, its central bank chief
said on Tuesday, enabling it to attract more investment initially from other
members of the East African Community and then from the rest of the world by
2015.
An
open capital account is among the prerequisites for the financial market
integration of the regional bloc's five members, a step towards a monetary
union protocol, expected to be signed by end 2012.
"It
is by 2012 for Tanzania within East African Community, and by 2015 for the rest
of the world," Bank of Tanzania Governor Benno Ndulu told a news
conference.
The
bloc's protocol will set up a timeline for achieving a monetary union with
coordinated fiscal and monetary policy, among others.
Tanzania
will need to liberalise its capital account to get a sovereign rating, analysts
say, if it wants to boost investor interest in its financial markets.
EAC
Secretary General Richard Sezibera, from Rwanda, told a joint conference hosted
by the bloc and the International Monetary Fund on Monday that other areas of
the financial services sector still require further opening up.
"We
are ... regrettably aware that the securities, pensions and insurance market is
yet to be regionalised and the capital account is yet to be sufficiently
liberalised by all partner states to enable our people to participate outside
the present framework of cross-listing of market shares at national
level," he said.
"Removal
of restrictions on capital flows should serve as a catalyst for capital market
development and the provision of long term and risk capital most needed to spur
economic development."
Other
members of the East African Community are Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Kenya.
South Sudan, which became independent last year, has applied to join the group.
Its application to join the bloc will be presented for approval at an EAC heads
of state summit later in the year.
The
EAC has a population of 133 million people and a gross domestic product of $79
billion. It has a fully-fledged customs union that came into effect in January
2010.
Source:
Reuters, af.reuters.com,
reported by George Obulutsa
0 comments :
Post a Comment