THE FIVE PRESIDENTS OF THE EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY COUNTRIES HAVE SIGNED A LANDMARK AGREEMENT ESTABLISHING THE REGION’S COMMON MARKET.
News Analysis By Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City.
THe five presidents of the East African Community member countries have signed a landmark agreement for the establishment of a common market, which allows free movement of people, goods, labor and capital across their member countries.
The ceremony, which took place on Thursday last week in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha, where the community headquarter is located, coincided with the 10th anniversary of the community’s rebirth and inception in 1999.
The colourful ceremony was attended by Presidents Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania, Mwai Kibaki of Kenya, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni of Uganda, Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi.
The ceremony was also attended by cabinet ministers from the five member states, members of the diplomatic corps, foreign dignitaries, invited guest as well as a battery of local and international journalists.
The common market agreement comes into effect on July, 1st, 2010 after ratification by all the five member states.
The next stage will then be to adopt one currency, and later, the much touted political federation, with possible of one federal president of an East African united states. This will create a buoyant economic growth to the region’s close to 130 million people.
Under the common market, East African citizens can enter another country without visa. Limitation, however, can be imposed by individual countries on grounds of public policy, security and health.
The signed protocol also allows for the rights of residence, free movement of service and capital, and protection of cross-border investments.
The five regional leaders signed the protocol during a colorful ceremony held at the Arusha International Conference Centre. Initially, the signing was to take place at the Sheikh Amri Abeid Memorial Stadium in view of the public. However, a heavy downpour of the current El-Nino associated rains marred the programme, prompting a change of venue.
The five Presidents also laid the foundation stone of the multi-billion dollar ultra –modern new headquarter of the East African Community, a project co-funded by Germany.
“The tradition is that all the protocols establishing the East African Community institutions are always signed in public, in order to be witnessed, since the birth of such projects”, President Kikwete explained.
Under the common market protocol, the five countries of Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi agreed to eliminate all the trade barriers, harmonize standards for goods and services, and to implement a common trade policy.
The head of states also agreed on the freedom of labor, to provide social security benefits, and establish common standard for workers and employers associations. Except for Tanzania, the rest agreed to use national identity cards as the official travel documents.
The common market is the second stage in the EAC integration process and comes five years after the launching of the customs union.
President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, who handed the EAC chairmanship to president Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania, said the signing of the common market protocol signaled the “passing of a region of states competing with each other, and welcoming a region with a common interest and aspiration”. “The establishment of the customs union has also enhanced trade among the member countries,” Kagame noted, adding that the fears that revenue of some countries would be vandalized has been removed.
In his moving address, President Yoweri Museven of Uganda called for investment in the oil exploration, and assured East Africans that the recently discovered petroleum in Uganda will benefit the entire region.
A jovial Ugandan leader said the oil exploration companies were initially opposed to the idea of building a refinery, and instead wanted to build a pipeline to export the raw crude oil to be refined abroad.
“Then I made an abrupt trip to Iran, which is not a popular country in some parts of the world {a reference to the US}. Through the President of that country, I learnt that they have nine oil refineries and are in the process of building another seven”.
He said the discovery of petroleum deposits in Uganda is a sign that there may be oil in other parts of western rift valley, which is shared by Tanzania. Rwanda and Burundi.
Museveni stressed that agriculture should not be neglected because petroleum is a finite resource that will get exhausted one day. ”The money accrued from oil therefore, should be used constructively to build infrastructure for transport, energy and science.
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leooderaomolo@yahoo.com