The foreign direct investment in East Africa increased by 4.2 per cent in 2016, as partner states remained optimistic about increased foreign inflows as a result of viable reserves of minerals, oil and gas in the region.
FDI into the region increased to $7.5 billion from $7.2 billion in 2015, with the majority of inflows coming from China, a draft trade and investment report shows.
The overall investment inflows in the region were in the manufacturing and construction sectors.
According to the report dated August, FDI in the construction and manufacturing sectors amounted to $843 million and $722 million respectively.
However, the value of this investment declined to $991.9 million in 2016 from $1.3 billion in 2015.
Investments in the manufacturing and finance sectors contributed about 20,439 and 8,809 jobs in the region respectively, while investments in construction and wholesale and retail contributed about 5,782 and 4,118 jobs respectively.
According to the report, the increase was driven by more FDI inflows into Burundi, Tanzania and Uganda but the growth in FDI inflows into Kenya and Rwanda declined.
Inflows to Burundi increased more than 10 times due to an end to the civil conflict that allowed business to resume.
Inflows into Tanzania reflected continued investments in the extractives sector, specifically in gas production, while increased investment in Uganda was related to the infrastructure and extractives sectors.
FDI inflows into Kenya were mainly driven by infrastructure, manufacturing, communications and information technology, transport and logistics.
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