Editor, 

I WRITE in reaction to the "Joint Communiqué from the 5th Northern Corridor Integration Projects Summit” published in The New Times on May 3. 

Absolutely impressive! It makes one proud to see that even on a continent best known for its leaders’ high talk and no action, we in East Africa have this exceptional calibre of heads of state with laser-like focus on making sure their decisions are implemented fully and on schedule.

The people will have a lot to thank for Presidents Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, Paul Kagame and Uhuru Kenyatta, once all these visionary infrastructure projects are finally on line.

In time I also have no doubt our Tanzanian and Burundian partners will eventually get on board this train. The benefits they should derive from them are enormous that depriving their countries of such opportunities makes absolutely no economic, social or political sense.

But even if they decide, for whatever reason, to remain on the sidelines, the three vanguard partners will not have wasted valuable time waiting for laggards who do not see the same benefits in faster, broader and deeper integration.

Mwene Kalinda, Rwanda