{Four Heads of State meeting in Kigali yesterday took concrete steps to fast track regional integration during the third edition of a joint summit where several ongoing regional projects were reviewed.}
Presidents Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya and Paul Kagame were joined by their South Sudanese counterpart, Salva Kiir Mayardit, in the summit that resolved to remove all remaining trade barriers with immediate effect.
President Kagame referred to the meeting as a “milestone” and said that he was encouraged by the progress.
“This third summit to review important integration projects has been very productive,” said Kagame. “I am pleased that the single customs territory is now operational. This is a critical milestone that will boost doing business between our countries and contribute to the growth of our economies.
“But we still have a long way to go and a lot of work to do to get to where we want to be. However, we are encouraged by the advances we have made,” he added.
One of the major decisions was the creation of a Single Customs Territory that will see the reduction of the days a truck takes between Mombasa and Kigali from three weeks to eight days.
Transit trucks will now be weighed only once at the point of entry and would be fitted with electronic tracking tags to monitor their moving on the Northern Corridor.
By November 2013, Kenya will have shared design plans of a new Standard Gauge Railway with the other countries present in the meeting. Railway training schools in Uganda and Kenya will also be strengthened to become regional institutes.
Energy was also high on the agenda. Partner states were given a November 30 deadline to have deposited, in National Bank of Rwanda, their contributions towards a feasibility study for proposed oil pipeline that will link the countries.
Other key areas discussed was the implementation of a single EAC tourist visa and the use of national or voter IDs, as well as student identity cards as travel documents.
The meeting also resolved that by the end of November, officials will have drawn up a plan to scrap visa fees for African nationals, and seek ways to reduce the cost of air transport.
{{New Times}}
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