BUJUMBURA July 29th (ABP) – The Minister of Finance, Budget and Economic Planning, Mr Domitien Ndihokubwayo, together with his counterpart in charge of Trade, proceeded on Tuesday afternoon, at the Hotel Source du Nil, to the official launch of the electronic platform for information on trade in Burundi, the https://info.commerce.bi.
According to Minister Ndihokubwayo, the information portal was set up by a team from the Burundi Revenue Authority (OBR) which has compiled all the information that traders and businesses need to import or export different products or form a company.
That online platform provides information on the legal bases, the procedures, the different stages, the costs and the time it takes.
That portal is of great importance because both national and foreign economic operators will be able to consult online, without having to go to different services, the information they need, which will allow them to save time and the transport fares. This brings about a huge gain in terms of the economy and development.
According to Minister Ndihokubwayo, that online portal is an initiative of the government of Burundi which seeks to honor the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Trade Facilitation, adopted eight years ago. It also helps to harmonize with other EAC countries. According to the Minister of Trade, Transport, Industry and Tourism, Mrs Capitoline Niyonizigiye, companies are facing a lot of problems caused by high transport costs and delays at the border which constitute barriers to trade.
Those obstacles can often have a decisive influence on the possibility or the impossibility of competing internationally. Access on trade facilitation aims to reduce or eliminate those barriers.
Thus, access to commercial information aims to rationalize and simplify procedures in order to reduce the costs of cross-border trade.
After the opening ceremonies which were marked by several speeches by representatives of the EAC (East African Community), the International Trade Center, the European Union, the Commissioner General of the OBR, there was a panel to explain in depth the benefits that Burundi intends to derive from that information portal and how it will be managed, monitored and updated.
It emerged from those exchanges that this information portal has management bodies and that it will be scrupulously monitored and updated, given that the information is dynamic. It will also allow partners to give suggestions to be able, for example, to lighten the procedures or steps in comparison with the procedures or steps observed on the trade information portals of other countries.
The participants requested that the designers of this Burundi commercial information portal could go further to allow the possibility of issuing the necessary documents online.