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President
Paul Kagame of Rwanda introduces President Museveni to Uhuru Kenyatta,
President of Kenya in the holding room at Presidents office, Urugwiro
Village Kigali Rwanda on Monday
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President Paul Kagame of Rwanda introduces President Museveni to Uhuru Kenyatta, President of Kenya in the holding room at Presidents office, Urugwiro Village Kigali Rwanda on Monday
By Vision Reporter
President Museveni has described the tripartite Infrastructure
Integration Projects Summit as a new effort on `how to transform and
make our people, our countries and continent prosperous through
integrating markets and economies to guarantee the regions sovereignty’.
The President who is in the Rwandan Capital and together withr
presidents; Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya; Salva Kiir Mayardit of South Sudan
and the host Paul Kagame was addressing the 3rd Infrastructure Projects
summit held at the Office of the President in Kigali.
The summit is an initiative bringing together the four countries to fast
track regional development through infrastructure development, trade,
political and economic integration.
Museveni said through the efforts being made, the region will
consolidate markets for its products, develop joint infrastructures,
consolidate its security and realize the development of its human
resource to achieve transformation and development.
President Paul Kagame said this summit was a follow-up of earlier
similar high level meetings in Kampala and Mombasa and said it has made
tremendous advances and witnessed the launch of a single customs
territory to facilitate trade and eliminate the remaining non-tariff
barriers on the northern corridor.
He welcomed Presidents Uhuru Kenyatta and Silva Kiir who were making their first official visits to Kigali.
Silva Kiir thanked Kenya and Uganda for being real partners; for
standing with South Sudan in hard times and for opening their doors to
the people of his country even as her northern neighbour, Sudan closed
her borders.
He said his country now has an observer status in the East African Community and is looking forward to having full membership.
President Kenyatta said he was happy with the progress so far made since
the first Summit in Kampala and assured his counterparts of his
commitment to the integration process adding that Kenya will be
launching the construction of the standard gauge railway line in Mombasa
later this year.
The three countries' Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Uganda, Kenya and
Rwanda signed the Memorandum of Understanding detailing planned joint
integration projects in the region which include Standard gauge Railway
development, Oil pipelines and refinery development, Power generation
and Transmission and East African tourism visa and National ID cards as
travel documents.
Last June, leaders of Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda spearhead different
components of joint projects: Uganda committed to lead the railway
development and political federation sector; Rwanda on customs, single
tourist visa and East African Community e-identity card; and Kenya on
the implementation of the oil pipeline and electricity generation.
The follow-up summit held in Mombasa saw the heads of state participate
in the commissioning of Berth 19, to increase capacity of the Kenyan
port to serve the entire region.
This week's Kigali summit welcomed South Sudan to the initiative,
launched the Single Customs Territory and reviewed the progress of
infrastructure projects led by each country.
On Tuesday, over 12 Africa Heads of State will attend the Transform
Africa Summit, organized by the International Telecommunication Union
(ITU).
This summit aims at pooling resources and setting a new agenda for
Africa to address development challenges through the use and uptake of
ICT and related services.
Other African leaders expected to attend the Transform Africa Summit are
Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn of Ethiopia, Presidents Goodluck
Jonathan of Nigeria, Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania, Yoweri Museveni of
Uganda, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita of Mali, Salva Kiir of South Sudan, Macky
Sall of Senegal, Ali Bongo Ondimba of Gabon, Pierre Nkurunziza of
Burundi, Denis Sassou Nguesso of the Republic of Congo, Blaise Compaore
of Burkina Faso and host President Paul Kagame
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