As part of the efforts to enhance regional integration, heads of missions representing partner states of the East African Community (EAC) have met to discuss how consular services can be jointly handled. In a meeting held on Saturday in Arusha, Tanzania, the envoys discussed a range of issues dwelling mostly on how they can enhance their involvement in the integration process. “We among other issues discussed the joint issuing of visas by embassies of partner states where other EAC countries aren’t represented,” said Rwanda’s Ambassador to Kenya George William Kayonga, who also chaired the two-day meeting. Kayonga said, an embassy of a partner state would extend consular services to an EAC national whose country is not represented in that particular country. The meeting of the envoys stems from a Memorandum of Understanding signed in 1999 by the first three EAC countries Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania. It details that heads of mission of Partner States should meet regularly within their host countries as well as in Arusha for briefings on the activities of the regional bloc. “We agreed that we will regularly hold meetings in host countries to make demarches on any particular matter of interest for any particular state,” Kayonga said, adding that they will also regularly brief their respective capitals on matters pertaining to the EAC in their host countries. The envoys were also briefed on the current stand of the common market protocol negotiations, an issue that will also feature prominently at the forthcoming EAC Heads of State Summit this week. The Ambassadors implore the EAC Secretariat to double efforts in passing on information about the bloc to embassies of partner states all over the world. The commitment by the envoys towards regional integration also increases the region’s ability to market itself as a single investment destination given its huge economic potential with a wide market of over 120 million citizens. Uganda’s Ambassador to Rwanda, Richard Kabonero, was upbeat that to a larger extent, the common market negotiations had registered success, adding that the few remaining unresolved issues in the protocol would also be solved soon. “There is no shortcut, challenges are always going to be there when negotiating but ultimately everyone realizes that it is in each country’s interest and the whole region as a whole to conclude this protocol,” Kabonero said. The meeting was also attended by Rwanda’s Ambassador to Tanzania Zeno Mutimura, and Rwanda’s Ambassador to Uganda Ignatius Kamali Karegyesa. Ends
