President Kagame to attend 4th Summit of the Northern Corridor Integration Projects

PRESIDENT Paul Kagame will join President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni of Uganda and President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya for the 4th Summit of the Northern Corridor Integration Projects in Entebbe, Uganda, tomorrow February 20. 

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

PRESIDENT Paul Kagame will join President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni of Uganda and President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya for the 4th Summit of the Northern Corridor Integration Projects in Entebbe, Uganda, tomorrow February 20. 

The Summit is an initiative bringing together Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda to fast track regional development through regional infrastructure, trade and political and economic integration. 

Other countries expected to attend are Burundi, South Sudan and Tanzania.

The Summit which will be preceded by a meeting of senior officials and ministers, will share developments, review implementation of projects discussed previously and propose the best way forward. 

The Heads of State will also launch the East African tourist visa. Presidents Kagame and Kenyatta are expected to show their IDs at their points of exit and receive a coupon upon arrival into Uganda. This will mark the official launch of the use of national identity cards, voter/students cards as travel documents.

At the inaugural Infrastructure Summit in Entebbe, Uganda, in June 2013, leaders of Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda agreed to divide responsibilities: Uganda committed to lead the railway development and political federation sector; Rwanda was to take on  customs, single tourists and East African Community e-identity card; while Kenya took on the implementation of the oil pipeline and electricity generation.  

The following summit was held in Mombasa, Kenya where the Heads of State attended the commissioning of Berth 19, a project anticipated to increase capacity of the Kenyan port to serve the entire region.

The 3rd Summit which brought South Sudan on board was held in Kigali on October 28 last year.

There was also the launch of the single customs territory which saw reduced time spent moving goods along the corridor from Mombasa to Kampala from 18 days to 5 days and from Mombasa to Kigali from 21 days to 8 days.