East African Community (EAC) Secretary General Dr Richard Sezibera, over the weekend, concluded a one-week visit to Japan, where he urged the Asian giant to support the region’s poor railway network.Sezibera made the request during a meeting with the vice president of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Tsuneo Kurokawa.He appealed to JICA to support the railways sub-sector arguing the region would benefit from Japan’s experience. The country runs numerous narrow gauge railways.“Support in capacity building, pre-investment studies and other railways performance improvement strategies would be welcome,” an EAC statement quotes Sezibera as telling Kurokawa.He said the railways contribution in the EAC, as a mode of transport, has declined consistently to the extent that currently railways only carry six percent of the freight traffic in the region.The EAC chief commended JICA for its support to various projects in the region, citing the completion of the detailed design and arrangement of financing for the Rusumo one border post between Rwanda and Tanzania.On the implementation of the Common Market and the Customs Union, Sezibera noted that further assistance from JICA was needed to support the overall development of an efficient platform to anchor the two integration stages.“This support, which in the past has largely covered infrastructure and trade facilitation instruments, could be extended to cover the remaining areas under the two broad sub-sectors,” Sezibera stated.JICA has already agreed to support the development of an EAC Maritime and Ports Development Strategy and a request has been made to support the study on the development of an EAC Infrastructure Coordination Agency.Amb. Sezibera also addressed the students and staff at the UN University in Tokyo.
