At a meeting at the Unesco headquarters in Paris on June 9, representatives of the two organisations as well as other development partners proposed ways to improve infrastructure and transport challenges along key trading corridors.
The meeting, dubbed the Integrated Corridor Development Convention, was organised to assess the challenges and opportunities to facilitate better regional integration in East Africa.
“In East Africa, high transport costs, poor infrastructure and underdeveloped logistics services limit the competitiveness and inhibit the integration of both the landlocked and transit countries into the regional and global market,” said Pierre Guislain, senior director for the World Bank’s Transport and ICT Global Practice.
“Increasing the integration between the different modes of transport by developing the corridors can significantly improve connectivity and contribute to higher growth in the region.”
The convention’s goal was to discuss solutions to facilitate the funding of trading corridor development in countries such as Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda.
The meeting was a follow-up to the third EAC Heads of State retreat on infrastructure development and financing held in Kenya in November last year where EAC leaders endorsed a strategy and action plan to improve the quality of service, and reduce the costs of transport, by improving links between the different modes of transport along the key trading corridors in the region.
READ: Infrastructure projects to top agenda at EAC leaders’ summit
Freight transport
The strategy, which the EAC Secretariat was tasked to implement, focuses on improving intermodality for freight transport along the Northern and Central Corridors, from the maritime ports to the inland lakes of Victoria and Tanganyika.
“The EAC views the implementation of the Intermodal Strategy projects as a critical input in the reduction of transport costs in the region,” said Richard Sezibera, Secretary General of the EAC. “The realisation of a strong EAC Common Market is predicated on the development of efficient infrastructure in the region.”
During the convention, development partners and country representatives presented their priorities, and discussed potential collaborations in accelerating the implementation of corridor projects such as the Lake Victoria and the Lake Tanganyika transport programmes.
The two programmes will require a total investment of $1.8 billion, of which the World Bank has committed $850 million to date.
The East African
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