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Common Market 'To Address Social, Cultural Issues'
Arusha, Nov 30, 2009 (The Citizen/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) --
The recently signed East African Community Common Market Protocol will also address social and cultural matters, according to a senior East African Community official.
Other critical areas were cooperation in regional infrastructure, science and technology, industrial development and agriculture and food security, EAC deputy secretary general (Productive and Social Sectors) Jeane Claude Nsengiyumva said in Nairobi during the launch of the 2009/10 East African Business Directory.
He said the EAC Common Market Protocol, which was signed by all the five partner states of the regional in Arusha on November 20, would in principle largely govern intra-regional trade matters.
However, it also aimed to promote social, cultural and other interactions of people within a larger and vibrant single market as well, Mr Nsengiyumva said.
"Apart from its provisions for free movement of trade and factors of production, the Protocol provides for cooperation in critical areas of regional development including infrastructure, science and technology and food security."
Mr Nsengiyumva said the launch of the East African Business Directory was not only timely but had shown the enthusiasm with which the region's business community had received the Common Market.
"The Protocol therefore raises important interventions which must be led by and involve critical inputs of the private sector," he said during the event which attracted key officials from the East African Business Council and Kenyan ministry responsible for EAC affairs.
Mr Nsengivyumva underscored the role of the private sector in the region's march towards modernity, saying the sector should play a key role in strategic leadership.
"The aim of economic integration being to tap opportunities of economies of scale arising from a larger market and investment area in order to accelerate growth."
He added that it was important for the manufacturing and trading enterprises of the region - both large and small-scale - to increasingly collaborate among themselves in the context of the Common Market "and the solid regional economic bloc that we are pursuing."
The private sector needed to coalesce into a confident force and centre of dynamic engagement and interface with government in building a strong EA economy with a solid industrial and manufacturing base, Mr Nsengiyumva said.
It should also fully support strong production and marketing enterprises that would raise the competitiveness of the region and raise the living standards of the people.
The EAC official further stressed that development players in EA needed to coordinate and marshal strategies and resources to enable them invest in human resources, economic infrastructure and marketing services so as to strengthen performance and maximise scores in the highly competitive global markets.
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