Made up of five nations; Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, the East African Community set out on a regional integration initiative to jointly develop aspects like infrastructure, science and technology, education as well as harmonize business modalities.

The different ongoing regional integration initiatives have so far had benefits such as easing business procedures, easing logistics of people and services, among other aspects. Valentine Rugwabiza, the minister for East African Community affairs, last week spoke to The New Times’ Collins Mwai about the progress achieved and lessons learnt in the integration process. Excerpts;-

In the EAC region, there seems to be more activity on the Northern Corridor than there is on the central corridor, are all partners committed?

The EAC treaty allows for asymmetric implementation meaning that while all partner states are bound by the commitments made, the EAC recognses that all partner states do not have the capacity or readiness to implement them.

Therefore, EAC made provision for different geometry and asymmetry in the implementation process. What is happening in the northern corridor is as a result of that clause.

All the five partner states enter in an agreement which is usually reflected in protocols that are ratified by heads of state. Rwanda is equally bound by those protocols. The challenge in EAC is not so much about instruments, it is more about implementation.

We need to make sure we fast track the implementation.  In little more than a year, through the acceleration of the EAC integration process in the Northern Corridor has been and acted as a locomotive to fast tracking and acceleration progress in the Central Corridor.

It is over five years since Rwanda joined the EAC, what have been the lessons drawn from the ongoing implementation of the integration process?

Through the ongoing integration processes, we have learnt that we could have the best protocols in the world but they won’t make much of a difference to our citizens unless they are implemented.

Implementation is not and should not be in one direction, as barriers are being removed; new barriers at times come up, it is not enough to implement, we are also supposed to monitor closely.

Those are the key issues in the integration process make use of the exiting process, put in place a robust implementation cycle that begins with planning, to actual implantation and moving to monitoring.

The fourth phase should be information, inform citizens, businesses and other stakeholders of what is happening in the region and new opportunities that    have emerged as a result of the implementation.

The single customs territory became operational this year, was it worth it?

The single customs territory is one of the initiatives that has brought about tremendous changes. When it became operational there have been tremendous changes on the northern corridor in terms of the number of days taken to move goods from the port of Mombasa to Kigali where we moved from 21 days to five days.

This change in time taken has been reflected in the number of trips that the trucks are able to make. Businesses are now able to make more money without necessarily investing more.

We are also seeing the impacts on the volume of Rwandan exports to the EAC region. If you compare between exports to the EAC region of the first semester of last year and this year’s first semester, you will notice a drastic increase of about 38 per cent.

We used to export goods worth about $70million to the EAC which has now risen to about $98 million.

This is one of the benefits accrued from the single customs territory in one single corridor. Another impact is that as an effect of that improvements are being made at the port of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania to reduce the clearance time taken containers.

This is important because some of our important trade is through the central corridor.

Going by a  yet to be published study, the time taken to move goods from the Tanzanian port to Kigali will go down to about 8 days which will be a huge improvement.

Our trade flows in the EAC region are growing faster and so is our trade with the rest of the world.

As barriers are being removed, what areas that require extra effort or investments?

As we remove the non tariff barriers, we need more investments and logistics; we have infrastructure developments but, there are too few players, we need more players in regional logistics. With more players there will be positive competition which will have an impact in the pricing of goods.

We have improved in logistics as noted by the latest World Bank Logistics index, but still logistics are expensive and can do better.

You were recently sworn into the East African Legislative Assembly, what will be your new role in the assembly?

All ministers in charge of EAC affairs in the five partner states are ex-officio members of the body.

Our role is to explain to the legislative body why some actions are being taken, explain why there has been progress or lack of it in some areas and also to provide with the necessary input and info while they are drafting bills to ensure that they reflect the integration spirit.

Does the EAC prioritise any particular areas in the integration process?

All sectors are priorities to the EAC region. Implementation, however, takes the top spot in terms of priorities. Then progress monitoring, division of labour, specific projects and also sharing information as the implementation process goes on to ensure that there are no discrepancies.

We have learnt the importance of working together from the planning phase, we plan together; mobilise resources together to have outcome that are good for everyone.

What has been the reason behind the continued dragging of feet between the EAC and the European Union to sign the Economic Partnership Agreements?

It is still under discussion, a meeting is scheduled to take place between the EU and EAC trade ministers. The Economic partnership agreement has been in negotiations for quite a while, from Rwanda’s stand point a lot of aspects to facilitate the agreement have been put in place, though there are a few pending issues that will be addressed.

The review mechanism and the safeguard measures that have been put in the agreement covers the interests of the country which is to be able to attract investments to areas that add value to the economy.

The EU remains an important market and we would like to diversify our exports to the region. To do this, we require having appropriate technology and also investments in the diversification of those products.

To attract the investors they need to feel protected by an agreement that has strong legal protective measures.

The majority of businesses in the region are small and mediums enterprises. Does that leave them favourably or unfavourably placed to partner with multi-nationals?

Mostly when we speak of businesses we mean small and medium enterprises, it is a good thing because it is those enterprises that provide employment, and constitute the back bone of the economy, when we negotiate we negotiate from the stand point of small and medium enterprises.

The reality of trade today is that it happens in a fragmented manner. It is rare to have a product that has been produced in a vertical manner in one country or one firm.

Most times you have parts that have been produced in different countries using the comparative advantage and assembled in another country. The beauty of such is that competitiveness and comparative advantage doesn’t have to depend on the size of the market.

So, if Rwanda can have a comparative advantage in infrastructure and providing a smooth predictable environment for business, it becomes interesting to investors. It is more interesting because the country is part of a regional integrated market.

Regardless of where they set their business or plants in the region, it will be a win for all the partner states we will grow faster and become more competitive.

We need to make the common market a reality because that is what will bring us bigger investors. Investors are chasing growth. Currently in Africa, it is higher than most parts of Europe. And even within Africa itself, the East African region is doing better compared to other regions.

Any comment as we conclude the interview?

Let’s implement (the EAC protocols) faster because the results we will get in terms of investments are unequivocal as well as build the competitiveness of our local business players placing them high on an international level.