WITH AN estimated population of around 140 million and a total surface area of 1.8 million sq.km, the East African Community endeavours to broaden and deepen economic, political, social and cultural integration in order to improve the quality of life of the people of East Africa through increased competitiveness, value added production, trade and investments.

The integration is pegged on widening and deepening co-operation among the Partner States in, among others, political, economic and social fields for their mutual benefit.

To this end, the EAC countries have made strides in harmonising Customs Union and a Common Market, at the same time the integration pledges to see the bloc enter into a Monetary Union and, ultimately, become the Federation of the East African States.

While this may sound ambitious, and there is nothing wrong about this, the undertaking offers significant opportunities not only to expand trade among member states, but more importantly to scale up regional production to take advantage of much larger global market opportunities.

This will at the same time create a safe haven for international investors to venture into the region’s rich un-exploited resources.

East Africa’s agricultural products, rich cultures, great climate and wildlife existence are potentially valuable instruments to facilitate the integration in support of this scaling up.

They have also showed the potential to deliver powerful demonstration effects on the benefits of integration and to help entrench the integration process.

However, these existing regional valuables rely greatly on the movement of goods through efficient and effective transport networks.

The ability of our producers to move agriculture, industrial products and natural resources to domestic and export markets in a timely and efficient manner directly impacts on productivity and competitiveness – and hence the economic performance of the region.

It is not news that the cost of doing business in the regional bloc is very high relative to other regions! The poor and sometimes embarrassing state of regional transport infrastructure and sub-optimal mix of transport modes contribute substantially to this unfavourable state of affairs.

Inter-regional transport network is, therefore, an essential catalyst for business and industry growth. The purpose of minimising logistical costs often leads to concentrated production structures.

At the moment, however, integration of production or road networks within the EAC is extremely limited while this integration development sets higher requirements for the transport systems.

The role which land transport plays at a  regional economic integration depends greatly on the quality of the related infrastructure, the absence of ‘missing links’, the existence of common technical standards as well as the level of non-physical barriers like member states’ policies and government priorities.

To meet the growing transport demand resulting from increased intra-regional trade, there is a critical need to upgrade and expand the capacity of regional transport networks, notably by better integrating different transport modes that cater for different needs like urgency, cost and convenience.

The Northern Corridor is one great commitment so far, this will facilitate the mobility of labour and capital which in its turn will contribute to the rapid industrialisation of the region.

This is by linking the land locked countries of Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi with Kenya’s maritime port of Mombasa, and at the same time serve Eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Southern Sudan and Northern Tanzania.

A few days ago, the Northern Corridor Integration Projects Summit bi-monthly meeting was hosted by President Uhuru Kenyatta which brought together President Kagame, President Museveni and Vice President James Wani Igga of South Sudan for a discussion on the progress of the Northern Corridor Integration Projects.

They renewed their commitment to fast-tracking the implementation of the infrastructure projects for transforming the Northern Corridor.

Indeed, EAC member states are much focused and, in fact, passionate on this subject matter. Already in Rwanda the highways leading to neighbouring countries are in form and undergoing continuous upgrades.

An October summit held in Kampala saw the launch of the Uganda portion of the standard gauge railway that will connect Malaba to Kampala and Kenya with the same linking Mombasa and Uganda.

Successful integration of regional transport links will not only facilitate exports to global markets but, by definition, will result in greater inter-regional trade through increased task or component-based trade. It is a good thing that the process of regional integration of production is being supported through the EAC Industrialization Strategy.

It has been presumably worrying that one pays half the amount of Dubai’s air fare to travel within East Africa, while the hours are three times less.

Good enough, on the same 8^th Northern Corridor Integration Projects Summit, held in Nairobi this month, the Heads of State signed an MoU on the management of the Northern Corridor Air Space bloc, a move that will greatly contribute to the development of infrastructure for transmission, power trade, and reduction in the cost of air travel in the region.

In conclusion, putting transport network first in the integration agenda is one thing with indispensable significance to the people of East Africa. And who said East Africans are not on the move towards true integration?

The writer is a consultant and visiting lecturer at the RDF Senior Command and Staff College, Nyakinama.