The 2nd East African Community/African Development Bank Technical Planning meeting to review the status of implementation of the ongoing projects financed by the Bank concluded on Friday, July 25 at the EAC Headquarters, in Arusha, Tanzania.
The July 24-25, 2014 meeting, which attended by officials from the African Development Bank, EAC organs and institutions including Lake Victoria Basin Commission (LVBC), Lake Victoria Fisheries Organization (LVFO), Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA) and the Civil Aviation Safety and Security Oversight Agency (CASSOA), also identified some new projects for consideration by the Bank.
Speaking during the official opening session, the EAC Deputy Secretary General in charge of Planning and Infrastructure, Enos S. Bukuku, commended the Bank for the excellent support the region continues to enjoy from it on projects and programmes pertaining to roads, railways, maritime transport, customs, energy, civil aviation, airports, one-stop border posts (OSBPs), ICT, education, Gendergender and community development, environment and natural resources.
He underscored the fact that much more still needs to be done in the areas of infrastructure development, trade facilitation, policy harmonization as well as deepening regional and continental integration. Bukuku urged AfDB to continue supporting EAC towards achieving the regional development objectives and appealed for support for the 3rd EAC Heads of State Retreat on Infrastructure Development and Financing scheduled for November 2014.
On behalf of Gabriel Negatu, Regional Director of the AfDB's East Africa Regional Resource Center, Baboucarr Sarr, the African Development Bank Lead Policy Expert, commended EAC for moving towards deeper integration and making commendable strides in the quest to create a larger, more integrated and more diversified single economic market in East Africa where goods, services and people will move freely.
He informed the meeting that the Bank's current portfolio in EAC consists of 126 ongoing projects with a total commitment value of US $4.1bn. About 70% (US $2.9bn) of this amount has been allocated to infrastructure, of which 34% (US $1.0bn) in energy, 45% (US $1.3bn) in transport, and 15% (US $0.61bn) in water. The other 30% has been allocated to agriculture, social sector, finance and multi-sector.
The EAC team updated the Bank on the performance of the projects and programs under implementation, on the Cooperation Agreement between the Bank and EAC, as well as updates on the preparation for the 3rd EAC Heads of State Retreat on Infrastructure Development and Financing.
The current African Development Fund (ADF) cycle is for the period 2014-2016 and the ADF 14 cycle will cover 2017-2019. The meeting between EAC and the Bank came in good time to identify projects which could be submitted for possible funding under ADF 14.
The 2nd EAC/AfDB Technical Planning Meeting was held in accordance with the Cooperation Agreement between the Bank and EAC of 1998. The first Technical Committee meeting was held on November 14-15, 2011. During the first meeting several projects and programmes were identified for possible support by the Bank.
