KAMPALA - The East African Community (EAC) and the Government of United States Thursday signed a Technical Cooperation Agreement to facilitate the development of transportation and infrastructure in the region.

The agreement was signed at the opening ceremony of the first Strategic Retreat for EAC ministers (16th -19th April) on regional infrastructure development in Kampala. It was signed by EAC Secretary General, Ambassador Juma Volter Mwapachu and Thomas J. Barrett, Deputy Secretary of Transportation in the US Department of Transportation.

EAC is composed of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.

Barrett noted that the multi-million dollar deal will provide aviation safety related partnerships, nearly one million dollars for airport modernization in Tanzania, and capacity to the EAC to explore ways of developing the East Africa Trade Corridor.

"EAC Governments will decide what is important in terms of infrastructure development, whether it is roads or railways, and the U.S Government will come in to work out ways of obtaining funding for these projects, said Barret

"We believe in bringing more business investment to support these projects. We have already started supporting the Aviation industry in the EAC to meet international standards. An efficient, reliable, and most importantly, safe transportation system is the bedrock upon which economies are grown and societies flourish. It is a foundation the EAC is striving to build." he added.

With the US’ African Trade Lanes Partnership grant, three representatives from each EAC member country will travel to the US to engage in a senior level dialogue on transportation and infrastructure development.

The move will provide an opportunity to representatives from EAC an unprecedented access to American best practices, policy-makers, and grant providers.

"Evidently, the state of our infrastructure across the boarder remains poor, to say the least. The recent post-election violence in Kenya was a wake-up call about our vulnerability due to our poor and inadequate infrastructure that offers alternative routes in our region," Mwapacu stated

"We have to develop all available transport corridors in our region, including air and lake transportation. The costs of doing business are still too high to transform our region into a globally competitive one." he added.

Meanwhile, Uganda President Yoweri Museveni told delegates at the opening of the retreat on Thursday that EAC needs to recognize the important role of regional infrastructure in developing economies and building nations.

"The political leadership in Africa must identify bottlenecks for economic growth such as development of regional infrastructure, establishment of a Common Market. The sooner we do it, the better. Even when we merge, our market’s size is still not big enough. But by pulling the market together, we shall have a relatively big market and as we buy more, the market will grow," Museveni said.

"Regional infrastructure development will lower the costs of doing business around the region and this will help our economies to grow. If the costs are higher, we won’t be able to compete," he added.

Museveni further noted the need to modernize and extend the current East Africa railways to the sea which he described as, "fit for a museum piece" because the railway lines are in poor condition with no connection to major routes such as Southern Africa and Ethiopia.

Rwanda’s Minister for East African Affairs, Monique Mukaruliza, who led the Rwandan delegation at the two-day retreat, told The New Times that regional infrastructure development would help Rwanda address its challenges as a land-locked country with a small market.

"Infrastructure development is a priority to development. As a land locked country, Rwanda incurs high costs on imports and exports. But improved infrastructure in the region will undoubtedly address most of these challenges, specifically reducing the costs of doing business. We will also use this opportunity to increase our market and this will help us develop our economy." she said.

The first strategic retreat for EAC ministers is being held against a backdrop of socio-economic challenges facing the region.

Those who attended the retreat, which was due to end yesterday, were ministers and other officials engaged with Infrastructure development and EAC affairs from the five partner states.

The retreat for ministers follows that of Permanent Secretaries/Secretaries Generals which was held in Mwanza, Tanzania on 3-4 March 2008 on the same theme.

The EAC Secretariat said in a statement that the Permanent Secretaries/Secretaries General retreat came up with far reaching recommendations that were due to be considered by the ministers in enabling policy decisions for effective response to the regional infrastructure demand.

The retreat looked into thematic areas of: Transport (roads, railways, civil aviation and inland waterways) Ports, Energy and Communications.

"Also included are cross-cutting issues relevant to the sectors; including funding, trade facilitation and meteorology. The retreat is expected to come up with tangible recommendations on the way forward for the regional infrastructure which is in dire need for improvement," the Arusha-based Secretariat said.

Ends