OPENING STATEMENT BY AMB. JULIUS ONEN, DEPUTY SECRETARY GENERAL (PROJECTS AND PROGRAMMES / ACTING SECRETARY GENERAL

By Leo Odera Omolo

I am very pleased to welcome you to the Headquarters of the East African Community on this occasion of the 14th Meeting of the Council of Ministers.

Allow me first of all to convey to you the Secretary General?s best wishes for a successful meeting of this Council. He also wishes to thank all of you for your payers and best wishes for his operation which was conducted very successfully. He is recovering very well and is daily in touch with us on the proceedings of the Community.

Secondly permit me on behalf of the Secretary General and on behalf of the EAC Secretariat, the East African Legislative Assembly; the East African Court of Justice and all the Institutions of the Community convey through the Chair of the Council of Ministers our sympathy to the Government of the people of Uganda for the massive destruction and tragedies caused by the recent floods in the Eastern and Northern part of Uganda. The current unprecedented massive rainfall and the impredictable weather pattern is a matter of serious concern to the Community and brings into focus the serious and urgent need to address its impact and consequences from both medium and long term perspective. We propose therefore to convene a multisectoral stakeholders meeting to discuss and come out with a regional strategy on the matter.

The Agenda of your meeting is extensive, reflecting the growing dynamism of the Community. Specifically, the Report on the Implementation of the Decisions of the Council outlines the progress made in the wide range of projects and programmes under the Planning and Infrastructure and the productive and Social Sectors. These projects and programmes are at the core of the integration process as they address the primary aims and expectations of the people of East Africa to realize socio-economic transformation and uplift their standards of living.

The theme of your meeting is moving towards a Common Market. The reports before you focus on the broad elements of the sectoral harmonization that will feed into the basic investments of the Common Market provisions.

Honourable Ministers,
On the issue of the overall expansion of the EAC programme, the Council has been long seized of the need to concretize the EAC projects and programmes as well as demonstrate their impact on the socio-economic transformation of East Africa . The recent restructure of the EAC therefore involved mainly the strengthening of the human resources capacity of the Projects and Programmes Division to meet the challenges of regional integration and development. Similarly, attention was paid to resource mobilization, both from the Partner States and development partners, to back up regional development programmes.

With this appreciation, the Secretariat organized a strategic Workshop for the staff of the Projects and Programmes Division which was held in Moshi early this month. The Workshop which focused on the management of resources, across the cross-cutting sectors, for effective delivery of the regional programme yielded an extensive review of the new orientation and focus of the EAC, in particular the need to re-examine the past performance with a view to performing better in concretizing the regional programme in the period ahead.

Today, as we look across the plains, hills and valleys to the period ahead of the intensification of the implementation of the 3rd EAC Development Strategy (2006-2010), the Secretariat is keyed to the key elements of clear prioritization of the projects and programmes; effective monitoring and evaluation and deepening positive political will, popular awareness and participation in the regional integration and development process. We recognize that although all sectors are important, it is important to place emphasis on a few manageable projects with high impact and tangible results for the people of East Africa , for instance, establishment of the Common Market; development of regional Infrastructure, Energy; Environment; Tourism; and Statistical Data Management in focusing monitoring and evaluation.

Honourable Ministers,
With regard to the enlargement of the Community, Honourable Ministers will be pleased to note this has been well managed and a smooth transition has been effected. This is attested to by the effective participation of the two new Partner States in the last Extra-Ordinary Meetings of the Council and the Summit which they attended for the first time in their capacities as full Members of the Community.

There are some outstanding issues, relating, in particular, to ratification of the Accession Treaties, participation in the East African Court of Justice and the EALA, Human Resources, Finance and Administrative matters which are works in progress. Further to this, I am pleased to report that a sensitization tour for the EAC Ministers has been arranged to Rwanda and Burundi that will take place next week as a launching of a wider outreach programme that will involve the EAC Secretariat, EALA and EACJ from 1st ? 12th October, 2007 to bring the two new Members up to speed with the challenges and operations of the East African Community.

Arrangements have also been made and funding secured from GTZ to invite 15 Technical staff from each of the new Members from the key sectors for two weeks attachment at the EAC Secretariat to enable them to fully internalize the degree and level of integration as well as the working procedures and implementation process of EAC Council decisions. We are also examining with support from GTZ to maintain a six months sensitization drive in two countries to ensure that by June 2008 both Rwanda and Burundi have been fully brought to a high level of harmonization of the various Council decisions.

Honourable Ministers
The Secretariat is well sized of the monumental challenge of the meeting the bench mark for the two major and critical attributes of our path to total integration that is the Common Market by 2010 and the Monetary Union by 2012. As directed by the Summit we are setting in motion a multi-sectoral strategy of negotiation process that we believe and hope will fast track the process to enable us meet the dead line. To enable us maintain the momentum and a clear sense of direction we propose to convene after due consultations high level retreats of Heads of States and Council of Ministers. We believe this will be critical in emerging our integration process and building a strong consensus on our path to total fulfilment of our Treaty Commitments.

We believe that with the structures and resources we now have in place, the regional integration process is on a high sustainable basis. We need nevertheless maintain constant effort to reinforce the confidence of the people in the Community, to anticipate and counter any negative tendencies, activities or ideas that might creep in that would adversely affect the mood of the integration process. On the whole, deliberate effort needs to be mounted by all to put regional integration at the heart of the Agenda of the East African leadership and the board citizenry.

In the face of these challenges, I would like to assure Honourable Ministers that the Secretariat is committed to discharge its responsibility with a high level of diligence and professionalism that displays deep knowledge and expertise; espirt-de-corps and social responsibility. It is with this commitment that we place great hopes on this meeting of the Council to provide its usual wise guidance and direction while deliberating the important issues on its Agenda today and taking the EAC to greater heights of achievement, peace, unity and development.

With these remarks, I thank you for your attention and wish the Meeting great success.

Thank you.

End

leooderaomolo@yahoo.com