Policy makers across East Africa realizethat weak professional services are impeding growth in theircountries. Recent studies have revealed a strongrelationship between African firms' access to servicesand their productivity. The East African governments havenow committed themselves to reforming their professionalservices along with other backbone services liketelecommunications, banking and transport. This will includecreating a more integrated regional market, and, to initiatethis push, in 2009 the five East African heads of state -Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda, adopted thecommon market protocol to begin the integration process inprofessional and other services. The East Africangovernments have asked the World Bank for assistance infixing the large gaps in information on policies and marketconditions in professional services, especially accounting,engineering, and legal services. This report is a first steptowards that aim. It will serve as a background document formeetings and workshops at the country and regional level,where regulators, professional associations, businessrepresentatives, negotiators and other stakeholders willconfirm and deepen the information, then plan concrete stepsfor reform and regional integration.
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