Moi Urges EAC Members to Unite to Cope With Globalization

By Giviniwa Paul, TOMRIC Agency (Dar es Salaam), 25 April 2001

Dar Es Salaam - THE Chairman of the East African Community (EAC), Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi has urged East Africans to unite to cope with problems, such as globalization.

Mr. Moi said this when speaking at the EAC Summit in Arusha northern Tanzania yesterday where heads of the three partner states were, among other things, meeting to endorse the appointment of the new EAC secretary-general and his deputy.

"There is no choice. What is important is to know that we need to unite," he said adding that the dream of the three countries, Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya, was to create an East African state. "Neither of the partner states can anticipate moving forward without the other two states. We must be united to cope with the challenges of globalization," he emphasized.

With a common market of about 82 million people we have the potential to attract investment. He said they were committed to avoid causes, which led to the collapse of the first EAC in 1977. According to him, elimination of internal tariffs would pave way for a customs union. During the summit, the EAC Council of Ministers also approved a 3,531,340 US dollars budget for the community for the 2001/2002 financial year. The chairman of the Council of Ministers, Jakaya Kikwete who is also the Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation said there had been an increase of 67.9 per cent in the budgetary provisions.

In the 2000/2001 periods, the budget EAC was 2,103,000 US dollars. Kikwete said the increase was on account of the community's increased number of organs and the growing number and magnitude of projects and other activities aimed at the proper functioning and development of the integration process.

The EAC Legislative Assembly and the East African Court of Justice are expected to be in place before the end of this year. According to Kikwete, the council of ministers had made the appointment of the Registrar of the Court and was in the process of recruiting a temporary clerk of the assembly.

He said that in view of the need, which has arisen for even distribution of the locations of the major activities of the regional organization, the council had directed the secretariat to prepare, for the council's attention and decision, guidelines on the seating of the East African Assembly and the EA Court of Justice.

Mr. Kikwete told the summit that the council was recommending that the indicative timing for the formal establishment of the East Africa Legislative Assembly and the EA Court of Justice be revised to October 31, this year. The assembly will liaise with the national assemblies of the member states on matters pertaining to the community and make recommendations to the Council of Ministers for the implementation of the treaty.

Yesterday the summit endorsed the appointment of the new EAC secretary-general and the new deputy secretary-general. The due, Ugandan's Mr. Nuwe Amanya Mushega and Dr. Kipyego Cheluget of Kenya, respectively, took an oath of allegiance before the summit. East Africa with an estimated population of 82 million people is a block of poor nations, with rich resources.