Economic pragmatism needed to spur EAC integration – expert

A leading British expert on regional economic integration, Lord Lea of Crondall, has called on EAC leaders to adopt a more pragmatic approach, not necessarily tied to politics, in order to achieve economic benefits for the region. Lord Lea, who was this week paying a courtesy call on Juma Mwapachu the Secretary General of the East African Community in Arusha, observed that in spite of its structure of strong political authority and emphasis on sovereignty of partner states, the EAC was not short of things that could be done outside purely political considerations. He said that the EAC could identify and focus on practical issues, among them immigration, free movement of persons , the environment, infrastructure, health , education and social security , without getting distracted or bogged down with lengthy conceptualisation and indulgence in metaphysics over intricate political and sovereignty issues. He also added that African regional economic communities needed to go for “opt outs” on some of the sticking issues, and concentrate on the areas of “intermediate comfort” where movement would be demonstrated without compromising the unity of the regional economic blocs. Lea added that there was need for resolute action to get things done and demonstrate concrete benefits and achievements of integration while using the success stories to get people more interested and involved in the regional integration process. President Paul Kagame has on several occasions called on EAC members to reform business procedures so that there’s increased speed in the delivery of basic services especially along commercial terminal routes in the region. Kagame has stated that with faster service delivery along border points in the region, there would be faster development. Lea’s remarks come only days after a lobby group of small scale farmers in East Africa called on the EAC secretariat in Arusha appealing to the Secretary General that they were being kept out of the EAC integration process. They also lamented that the EAC currently belonged to political leaders with no practical feature with which the citizens of the EAC could identify with. The British expert advised that the EAC needed to learn from the evolution and development of the EU which is political but whose engine is propelled by a pragmatic focus on the economic necessity. The EU, he said, was launched more with economic expression than with political fanfare. It was a trade-off between political abstraction and the push to get things done, particularly on the economic front. While responding to Lea’s remarks, Mwapachu said the current EAC was learning from the mistakes of its predecessors. The EAC which started in 1967 collapsed in 1977 after disagreements between EAC leaders at that time. Mwapachu said the EAC this time was proceeding “with caution, on a step-by-step basis, with consensus established at every stage of the integration.” He noted that the National Consultative Process of Fast Tracking the East African Federation carried out in 2007 was found to be acceptable to the people of the EAC countries. He continued that the EAC was currently committed to re-engaging the East African people about the whole question of political federation through deeper sensitisation on the benefits of integration. The EAC budget presented to the East African Legislative Assembly reserved over US$600,000 for its re-branding campaign throughout the region. Ends