Joint Rwanda, Uganda Commission meets in Kigali

KIGALI - The Rwanda – Uganda Joint Permanent Commission (JPC) has achieved most of what it set out to do in the past year. This was observed, yesterday in Kigali, during a meeting to evaluate the progress of the Commission’s six priorities. In Kampala last year, foreign affairs ministers from both countries, agreed to enhance bilateral cooperation in various areas, including peace and security, ICT, Infrastructure, cross border trade, agriculture and food security. Ambassador James Mugume, the Permanent Secretary in Uganda’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, observed that a lot had been achieved. “Our bilateral framework is working very well in almost all sectors. For example, we now have a one stop border post at Gatuna that works 24 hours. Regarding ICT, we are linking a cable between the two countries to improve the ICT infrastructure,” he said. Mugume added that that the two countries had improved in security, ensuring that the citizens are safe and live in harmony. It was agreed, last year, that defence and security chiefs hold meetings twice a year to identify areas of bilateral cooperation. Mary Baine, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affair, noted that there is still need to embark on other sectors that have not yet yielded respected results. “We need to strategize and achieve more. We need all borders to open 24 hours,” she said. Baine added that the meeting had come up with mechanisms of how all the agreed areas could achieve positive results. Ends

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Joint Rwanda, Uganda Commission meets in Kigali