EAC Secretary General lauds USA-EAC cooperation in transport and infrastructure development
ARUSHA, Tanzania, August 27, 2009/African Press Organization (APO)/ — The Secretary General of the East African Community, Amb. Juma V. Mwapachu has lauded the USA-EAC cooperation in transport and infrastructure development. Amb. Juma Mwapachu, who today officially opened a two-day USA-EAC workshop on Developing Sustainable Transport Systems at the Naura Springs Hotel in Arusha, Tanzania, said: “I am pleased to say that we are now in the process of establishing a US-EAC Council at Ministerial level that will develop and agree on projects and programmes which will drive this relationship”.
The Secretary General noted that the workshop comes in the wake of the conclusion of a Memorandum of Understanding between the US government and EAC. He said early last year in Kampala, Uganda, the EAC, USA-DoT and US Trade and Development Agency signed a Memorandum of Understanding, an agreement “that encapsulated the shared resolve by the contracting parties to empower the EAC to achieve deeper economic integration”.
Amb. Juma Mwapachu said the workshop was yet another example of the fast evolving relationship between the US Government and the EAC as it seeks to address one of the key challenges that confront the region pointing out that its importance was reinforced by the fact that the EAC is on the verge of reaching the threshold of its Customs Union when, from 1 January 2010, all intra-regional movement of goods will be duty free. He also added that EAC was closing in on the finishing line in its marathon towards the establishment of an EAC Common Market, whose protocol EAC Heads of State are expected to sign in November this year.
The Secretary General disclosed that the roads, railways and maritime transportation systems in the EAC region are, on average, in a poor state as are the railways and inland waterways transport systems. He added that even though efforts which seek to address these megacity transport woes are underway, such as the Dar Rapid Transport System and the Nairobi Metropolitan Transport Strategy, escalating costs and intensifying unplanned urbanization could limit the effectiveness of these transport programmes.
Amb. Mwapachu also spoke of the adverse environmental impact of the transport sector, noting that transport sector worldwide is largely energy intensive and consumes a large amount of natural resources, with estimates that road traffic is responsible for about 25% of worldwide emissions of gases. “It is thus crucial that a sustainable transport policy and strategy identifies the relevant environmental, social and economic concerns and tries to strike a correct though delicate balance. This is a hugely sensitive task, often linked to political overtones especially in the urbanised poor societies such as those in our region”.
He also bemoaned the high road accident rates in the East African region, where 65% of the fatalities involve passengers in public transport vehicles and pedestrians.
The Secretary General noted that conurbations in EAC megacities such as Dar es Salaam, Nairobi and Kampala have huge implications on motorized traffic and the challenge lies in reducing traffic through better transport planning systems which are also environmentally sound. “These systems must also address the growing special needs of the physically challenged populations which is a major policy deficit in the EAC transport systems” Amb. Mwapachu noted.
Amb. Mwapachu said sustainable mobility cannot be realized without political will and institutional reorganizations at the national levels remarking that the EAC Secretariat was duty-bound to bring forth the results of the workshop to the EAC Partner States for review and action.
The US government representative at the workshop, the Political and Economic Affairs Officer at the American Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Ms Emily C. Shaffer expressed strong support for the efforts of the US Department of Transportation and the EAC Secretariat in organizing the workshop.
She said: “It is our desire that the ties between the United States and the members of the East African Community will continue to expand on every level, to the mutual benefit of our citizens”.
Ms Shaffer noted that better roads will enhance abilities of the citizens of the East African Community to capitalize on their individual competitive advantages by trading with neighbours.
Over 120 transport stakeholders from the region are attending the workshop. Among them are the Permanent Secretaries; Eng. Abdulrazaq A. Ali of the Ministry of Transport of the Republic of Kenya, and Ms Marie Claire Mukasine of the Ministry of Infrastructure of the Republic of Rwanda.
SOURCE
East African Community (EAC)
