In the next three weeks, East Africa will make yet another milestone in the long journey towards creating a single regional economy that is big for residents to successfully do business among themselves and with the rest of the world.

Policy makers from the five member states are this weekend expected to gather in Tanzanian town of Arusha - the regional bloc's headquarters to work on the final draft of the protocol for the establishment of a common market that is to be launched mid next month.

In practical terms, a common market should enable citizens of member states to move freely across the national borders without the hustle of having to acquire travel documents such as a passport or a visa.

That alone saves the travellers thousands of shillings they would have had to pay to acquire the documents.

Operating in a common market also means producers of goods and services are freed from the many taxes and duties that national governments have traditionally used to shield locals from external competition.

When fully operational, this level of regional integration also allows citizens of member countries to work and settle in any part of the bloc - facilitating a more efficient distribution of skills and labour for improved productivity.

It is for these and other similar reasons that the planned launch of the common market should be of interest to ordinary citizens as it is to governments and businesspeople.

The expectation is that come January - the set date for the coming into force of the common market protocol - a large fraction of the barriers that national governments have over the years erected along their frontiers to restrict movement of people, goods and services will be pulled down.

Besides trade, more open borders should allow East Africans to interact in all facets of human activity, including in the socio-cultural arena.

It should allow for deeper interaction in the fields of arts, theatre, education, and tourism that East Africans can savour on their own and also sell to the world.

It should, however, be clear to East Africans that this journey, whose port of call should be a political federation, still has many obstacles to overcome.

Systems be it in school, at the workplaces or even in law have to be harmonized, infrastructure has to be build or upgraded, and common understanding built.

This is a project that must start with heavy publicity and education of citizens on what is at stake.