Els De Temmerman And David Muwanga in Kigali
27 June 2008
Kampala — Rwandan President Paul Kagame has been inaugurated as the new chairman of the Summit of Heads of State of the East African Community.
In an official ceremony marking the ninth Summit of the EAC Heads of State in Kigali on Thursday night, he replaced President Yoweri Museveni, who served in the post for the last year.
"According to the rules of procedure of the Summit of Heads of State of the East African Community, I hand over the chairmanship and instruments of power to Rwandan President Paul Kagame," said Museveni amidst applause.
In the same ceremony, the judges of the reconstituted East African Court, now also comprising Rwanda and Burundi, were sworn in.
Stella Arach Amoko and Joseph Nyamihoma Mulenga were sworn in from Uganda, the latter becoming the court's new chairman.
Kagame promised to serve the region to the level of expectations. He cited as one of his priorities removing the hurdles for trade in the region, such as a complete overhaul of the customs procedures at the border posts.
He told the gathering that a researcher he sent on a truck with export goods to Mombasa came across 47 road blocks between Kigali and the Kenyan port.
"There were three categories of road blocks: police check points, border gates and weigh bridges," he said.
"Although each road block provided a potential for corruption, the weighbridges proved to be the most devastating, accounting for 84% of the total bribe value."
He proposed to have only two weighbridges per country, one at the entry and one at the exit.
Kagame also criticised the inefficiencies of the ports of Mombasa and Dar es Salaam, which he said were caused by poor infrastructure, bureaucratic inertia and low productivity.
"We need a change of mindset. We need skilled business-friendly professionals to transform East Africa."
Summing up the successes in the past year, his predecessor, President Museveni, noted that trade among EAC countries had increased.
Uganda's exports to Kenya and Tanzania almost doubled between 2006 and 2007, he said.
Exports to Kenya went up from sh157b to sh270b, while exports to Tanzania rose from sh28b to sh46b.
Figures for Rwanda and Burundi are even more spectacular. Exports to Rwanda increased from sh48b to sh133b, while exports to Burundi went from sh33b to sh68b.
Museveni also announced that the Summit decided to have the common market and monetary union in place by 2012 as the EAC moves towards a political federation.
In addition, he proposed to change the decision making process in the EAC. "If we continue to use this rule (of consensus), substantive delays will be experienced."
He suggested that if a quorum of three is reached, the meeting should go ahead and the minutes availed to those who were absent for comments.
"If a unanimous decision cannot be reached even then, we could borrow a leaf from the European Union. UK was not part of their monetary union while others moved ahead."
He caused laughter when he said the economies of the EAC were still pygmies compared to the world economy.
"I don't like comparing pygmies, where one pygmy says to the other: I am slightly taller than you."
Tanzanian president Jakaya Kikwete thanked Museveni for having been "an inspiration" in the past year. He lamented about the region's power crisis, noting that Tanzania loses between $600m and $1b per year as a result of power shortages.
Kikwete also called the high food and oil prices a challenge to sustain efforts of poverty alleviation in the region.
Joining Museveni's call for value addition, he called for processing the EAC's raw materials.
"I was told that 1 kilo of cotton produces two shirts. Imagine how many jobs we are exporting by exporting our raw cotton."
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