KAMPALA-Rwanda has earmarked trade facilitation as one of the major areas the 2011 – 2016 East African Community Development Strategy should focus on, a government official has said.

Aime Uwase, the Director of Strategy and Policy Research in the Ministry of East African Community Affairs, was speaking in Kampala, yesterday, during a one week validation workshop on the five-year EAC Development Strategy.

He said that the country wishes to see consolidation of the Customs Union and the removal of non-tariff barriers as soon as possible.

"Apart from trade facilitation, regional projects on infrastructure like roads and railways, as well as energy, should be prioritised,” he added.

Uwase said that during the week, the technocrats would also look at the monitoring and evaluation framework that will address issues like; what should be achieved, as well as the costing of the development strategy.

"We need to know how much it will cost and this will determine how much each partner state will contribute,” he said.

Serge Kamuhinda, a Senior Policy Analyst in the Office of the President, recommended that the EAC should adopt a one matrix and template to be used in the easy formulation of the strategy.

All the five EAC partner states are each presenting proposals on what the strategy should embrace.

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