Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan and Rwanda Monday jointly launched a
Single Custom Territory to boost business among the partner States.In
a communique issued at the end of the 3rd Integration Projects Summit
in Kigali, the four partner States agreed to eliminate the remaining
Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs) through the Single Custom Territory.
The
Summit, which was attended by Presidents Uhuru Kenyatta, Yoweri
Museveni, Salva Kiir and Paul Kagame, resolved to ensure that transit
cargo is equipped with an electronic system by January 2014 for ease of
monitoring through the corridor.
The leaders also agreed that all
partner States should comply with the requirement that transit cargo
should be weighed once at the point of entry into each member State
territory.
“Partner States should establish a legal committee to
analyse the joint implementation of Axle Load issues,” the leaders
agreed.
The Summit was convened to review the progress on implementation of
the decisions reached during the 2nd Infrastructure Summit held in
Mombasa on August 28 and to provide direction on deepening of regional
integration.
After reviewing the Ministerial Report, the Memoranda
of Understanding (MoU) and the One Stop Border Post Agreement that were
signed during the Ministerial session, the leaders directed each
partner State to provide comprehensive information on existing power
generation capacities and investment programs within its jurisdiction.
They
called for consultations to be carried out between Uganda, Kenya and
South Sudan on the joint development of a crude oil pipeline project.
The
leaders agreed that heads of immigration, security organs, finance and
tourism should discuss the waiving of visa fees for African nationals in
November this year and be concluded before the next summit.
“Heads
of State will launch the East Africa Tourist Visa and the use of ID as
travel documents during the 4th of Summit,” the communique said in part.
On
the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) development, Presidents Kenyatta,
Museveni, Kiir and Kagame agreed that Kenya would share their SGR
detailed design standards by November 2013 while Uganda develops a draft
SGR Protocol for discussion in the same month.