— On Tue, 9/2/08, Magaga Alot wrote:

From: Magaga Alot
Subject: EAC PRESS RELEASE PRESIDENT KAGAME PLEDGES NEW BRAND EAC
Date: Tuesday, September 2, 2008, 4:45 AM

PRESS RELEASE

PRESIDENT KAGAME PLEDGES NEW BRAND OF EFFICIENT, EFFECTIVE EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY

EAC Headquarters, Arusha, 2 September 2008: H.E. President Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda and Chairperson of the Summit of Heads of State of the East African Community has said that time has come to turn around the EAC project and render it more effective and rapidly achieving.

President Kagame said that during his term as Chair of the EAC Summit he would marshal the collaborative effort of the Summit , all the organs and institutions of the Community , the broad spectrum of EAC stakeholders and the development partners to steer the East African Community to a new era of greater efficiency and effectiveness.

EAC delegation

President Kagame, who held a three hour Strategic Meeting with the Secretary General of the East African Community Juma Mwapachu and Senior EAC officials who called on him at the Office of the President in Kigali on 27 August 2008 , unveiled his vision of the 5-nation EAC regional bloc of 120 million population and a combined GDP of $50 billion.

The Secretary General was accompanied during the mission to Rwanda by Senior Officials of the East African Community: Amb. Julius Onen , Deputy Secretary General, Projects and Programmes; Hon Wilbert Kaahwa, Counsel to the Community; Dr Tom Okurut, Executive Secretary , Lake Victoria Basin Commission; Dr John Ruhangisa, Registrar, East African Court of Justice, Mr. Justin Bundi , Clerk to the East African Legislative Assembly ; Brigadier General Fred Tolit, Defence Liaison Officer; Mr. Philip Wambugu , Director, Planning and Infrastructure, Dr Nyamajeje Weggoro, Director, Productive and Social sectors; Dr Flora Musonda, Director of Trade, Mr. Magaga Alot , Head, Directorate of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs; Mr. Abdul Katabaro , Principal Administrative Officer; Ms Grace Okungu , Principal Human Resource Officer, and Mr. Henry Obbo , Chef de Cabinet.

Welcoming the EAC delegation, President Kagame said, “we are grateful to have worked with you and other partners in the region to make it possible for Rwanda and Burundi to join the Community and for giving us the honour, so soon thereafter , to chair the Summit…I understand clearly that the opportunity to chair the Summit does not represent any dramatic development but an opportunity to continue on the good path that has been laid . We’ll do our best to ensure that we can build on what there is to realize more efficiency and effectiveness in the integration process”.

President outlines priorities of dynamic EAC

President Kagame said the EAC was operating in a dynamic and challenging environment , adding that his contribution would be to render the EAC into a more efficient and effective regional organization that was focused on its mission to realize the expectations and desires of the East African people in greater liberty, unity and prosperity.

The President said among the regional projects that would receive priority attention, and moved to advanced stages of implementation during his tenure, were the ongoing regional infrastructure development master plans in roads, railways, inland waterways, ports and harbours as well as the Lake Victoria investments and development master plan.

He said that other priority projects and programmes would be the promotion of East Africa as a single tourist destination; the introduction of a common East African visa for tourists and business persons as well as intensification of the programme of elimination of non tariff barriers (NTBs) under the ongoing programme of the EAC Customs Union and the negotiations of the EAC Common Market. He sad the immediate measures would be aimed at reducing the costs of doing business in East Africa and, on the whole, promote East Africa as a competitive single market and investment area with a thrust on tourism, trade and investments promotion.

The President noted that the programme of marketing and promoting East Africa as a single tourist destination , which was launched in 2005, had proceed well with the EAC Partner States participating jointly in the leading travel and tourist source markets in Europe . The President directed the EAC tourist boards to extend the joint marketing of East Africa to Asia, Far East , Australia and America , stating that EAC had great tourist potential with significant multiplier effects on the economies of the five countries.

The President also noted that the aviation industry had great strategic significance to the EAC regional integration and development. He said the tourism industry would also be among the priorities of his tenure, including revival of the East African Flying School / East African Aviation School in Soroti , Uganda for training of pilots and aviation engineers. He said the aviation industry in East Africa would be revamped with promotion of investments to the sector to raise aviation standards and safety, open and safe skies and overall air traffic management in the region to the highest competitive levels.

Strengthening authority of EAC Secretariat

Meanwhile the EAC delegation during a three day (25-27 August 2008) Strategic consultative mission to Rwanda on the EAC integration process in Kigali addressed a series of meetings attended by Cabinet Ministers, Permanent Secretaries and Senior Officers of the Rwanda government.

During the launching session, the Counsel to the Community, Hon Wilbert Kaahwa reviewed the judicial and legal challenges facing the Community stating that the EAC concentrated its legal and judicial affairs on the promotion and protection of peoples rights within the Community. He said the Treaty for the Establishment of the EAC which was signed in 1999 was currently being reviewed to address some of the challenges and shortcomings that have been noted during the past eight years as well as the demands of the EAC enlargement and expansion of the regional programme. Hon Kaahwa said the issue of sovereignty at the national level was at the core of the implementation bottlenecks the EAC was experiencing . He said that the issue of sovereignty should be revisited so that decisions are more binding and their implementation more expeditious.

Hon Kaahwa said the enforcement processes as well as the sanctions provided under the Treaty were weak. He quipped that the provisions were negotiated “more by diplomats than lawyers” , noting that the provisions of decision-making by consensus posed a great challenge to the Community’s performance adding that , “How do you enforce sanctions against a Partner State where you have decision by consensus and the Partner States are expected to take sanctions against one of them by consensus?” .

The Secretary General said that the requirement of decision making by consensus had posed a logjam on the operations of the Community which needed to be addressed by the Partner States ceding adequate authority to the EAC to speed up the decision making process and enable the EAC Secretariat to act with greater confidence and more decisively in implementing regional projects and programmes.

Directorate of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs
EAC
Arusha

– – –
Date: Tue, 2 Sep 2008 05:26:34 -0700 (PDT)
From: Leo Odera Omolo
Subject: Fw: EAC PRESS RELEASE PRESIDENT KAGAME PLEDGES NEW BRAND EAC