The East African Science and Technology Commission (EASTECO) has been launched to promote and coordinate the development, management, and application of science and technology in the regional integration and socio-economic development of the people in the region.

Speaking at the launch in Kigali on Friday, Amb. Valentine Rugwabiza, the minister for East African Community Affairs, said the commission is very important to the regional development and called for concerted efforts to support it to achieve its objectives.

"The EAC believes that science and technology is a powerful tool to drive regional development; however, the EASTECO staff alone cannot achieve that goal. I therefore, call for partnership with governments, private, research and innovation institutions to ensure the commission delivers to the best,” she said.

The launch of EASTECO was part of the EAC awareness week which ended on Saturday with a visit to Rwanda-Tanzania border, in Kirehe District.

The commission had partly started operations back in July and it is one of the institutions provided for under Article 9 of the EAC Treaty.

Amb. Rugwabiza pledged Rwanda’s significant support to the commission and pledged that, though hosted in Rwanda, EASTECO will strive to address regional needs.

"Considering that two third of the EAC population is under 30 years, we will make use of our energetic youth, put in place the right policies creating a good environment for science and technology to realise the development we envisage,” she said.

The choice of Rwanda

Under the agreement, signed last year between EAC and the Government of Rwanda, the latter allocated the headquarter’s offices to EASTECO at Telecom House in Kacyiru, Kigali.

At the signing of the agreement, EAC Secretary-General Richard Sezibera said the EAC Council of Ministers chose Rwanda in 2011 to host EASTECO because of the country’s leading commitment to promote science and technology, adding he was optimistic that the commission will succeed to promote the region’s competitiveness in the rapidly changing world.

Dr Marie Christine Gasingirwa, the director-general of science, research and technology at the Ministry of Education, said the country is proud to host EASTECO and urged the commission to respond to the regional problems through research and innovation.

"Let us develop science and technology in our systems without forgetting our indigenous knowledge and knowledge transfer across the region. EASTECO should nurture the culture of innovation to produce what we need and stop waiting for anything good to come from outside the region,” she said.

Gertrude Ngabirano, the EASTECO executive secretary, said the commission is working with stakeholders in the region to identify priorities in science and technology as a way to develop an effective strategic plan to guide the commission’s activities in the next five years.

"Rwanda’s commitments toward science and technology make it the perfect place to host the commission and we are committed to engage the partner states in the functioning of the commission. The private sector and development partners will also be engaged,” she said.

Ngabirano asked regional states to increase the funding for science, technology and innovation to at least 2 per cent of the GDP, saying it currently stands at below 1 per cent, save for Rwanda that has met the 2 per cent threshold.

EASTECO was established by the fifth extra ordinary summit of the EAC Heads of State in 2007 in recognition of fundamental importance of collaboration in science and technology for economic development, as stated in article 103 of the Treaty establishing the East African Community.

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