{The fourth meeting of the Friends of Tripartite was held in Arusha recently. The main objective of the meeting was information exchange on progress made with regard to regional infrastructure development in the COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite region.
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While opening the meeting, East African Community (EAC) Secretary General and Chair of the Tripartite Task Force, Dr Richard Sezibera said the COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite Summit of Heads of State and Government in June 2011, adopted a developmental integration approach for the Tripartite Free Trade Area built on three pillars namely: Market Integration, Industrial Development and Infrastructure Development.
“Considerable progress has been there and negotiations have intensified to ensure we clinch the Tripartite Free Trade Agreement (TFTA) by June 2014,” he says. COMESA Secretary General, Mr Sindiso Ngwenya, reiterates that the Tripartite Free Area and its different components should be seen as part of the African Union Commission’s aim to establish a Continental Free Trade Area.
“We endeavour to address issues pertaining to multiple membership and different trade regimes of economic blocs in the continent and consequently establishing a Continental Free Trade Area by 2017,” he notes.
In a bid to make the region more competitive by reducing the high costs of transport, trade and energy, thereby creating higher levels of economic growth, employment creation and poverty reduction, the Friends of Tripartite meeting discussed various Tripartite Projects.
During these discussions, two projects merged the most critical – Tripartite and IGAD Corridor Programme (TCIP): initiated by COMESA, EAC, SADC and IGAD. The programme is aimed at boosting trade and growth in Eastern Africa. The TICP covers four main transport corridors in East Africa.
Northern Corridor linking the Port of Mombasa to Eastern DRC through Uganda and Rwanda, thereby giving physical interconnectivity across Eastern Africa; the Central Corridor connecting the Port of Dar es Salaam with the Great Lakes region and DRC at Kigoma and through Rwanda at Rusumo and thereafter Burundi; Lamu Corridor connecting the new Port of Lamu to Juba in South Sudan and also to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia and Djibouti linking the port of Djibouti to Juba in South Sudan through Addis Ababa in Ethiopia.
Serenje-Nakonde North Sudan Corridor road: a 613 km stretch of the North-South Corridor and is also part of the Dar es Salaam Corridor.
This is the only road between the port of Dar es Salaam and the copper belt of Zambia/ Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The road has failed completely, resulting in frequent accidents and long journey times.
The meeting also discussed the Tripartite Infrastructure Projects Database, expansion of the Mombasa and Dar es Salaam Ports as well as the Northern Corridor Superhighway (pipeline project).
In addition, latest policy and programmatic development were discussed, identifying areas for improved partnerships as well as gaps in support for the Tripartite agenda.
The meeting noted that infrastructure development, regulatory and policy frameworks facilitate cross border trade as well as foreign direct investment by reducing the cost of doing business in the continent as well as enhancing the free movement of people.
Additionally consensus was reached that there is need to focus on generation, distribution and interconnection of energy as well as information and communication technology.
The meeting was attended by Head of the Tripartite RECs and Tripartite Partners including the Department for International Development (DFID), KfW, European Investment Bank (EIB), European Commission, Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), BMZ, African Development Bank (AfDB), USAID, TradeMark Southern Africa (TMSA), Trademark East Africa (TMEA), the World Bank, DANIDA, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), IFC, ABSA Capital Private Equity, Old Mutual Investment Group Alternative Investments, China Development Bank, and Tripartite Project Preparation and Implementation Unit (PPIU), among others.
The Tripartite is an umbrella organisation consisting of three of Africa’s Regional Economic Communities (REC’s), namely: the East Africa Community (EAC), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
The overarching objective of the Tripartite is to contribute to the broader objectives of the African Union (AU), namely accelerating economic integration of the continent and achieving sustainable economic development – thereby alleviating poverty and improving quality of life for the people of the Eastern and Southern African Region.
As such, the Tripartite works towards improving coordination and harmonisation of the various regional integration programmes of its member REC’s.
These regional integration programmes focus on expanding and integrating trade and include the establishment of Free Trade Areas (FTA’s), Custom Unions, Monetary Unions and Common Markets, as well as infrastructure development projects in transport, information and communications technology and energy.
With more than 527 million people and a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of approximately 624 Billion US Dollars, the 26 member countries of the Tripartite make up 57 per cent of the population of the African Union (AU) and just over 58 per cent in terms of contribution to GDP.
This makes the Tripartite vital to the envisaged single market and continental integration of the African Economic Community (AEC)
Tanzania Daily News
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