East African Community secretary-general Richard Sezibera. FILE
By George Omondi
Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda, and Uganda citizens are
expected to start using national identity cards to visit each other this
year as part of the Common Market Protocol.
East African Community secretary-general Richard
Sezibera says the agreement by the four states to allow their citizens
to use IDs will significantly boost movement of persons and labour in
East Africa.
At the moment, one has to obtain national passport or temporary passes to be allowed to cross the border.
“I look forward to implementation on agreement on
use of IDs beginning 2014,” Dr Sezibera said yesterday in his New Year
message to the region.
The use of IDs as travel documents, he said, would
continue up to December as the bloc introduces internationalised East
African passport at the beginning of next year.
Single currency
When implemented fully, the region’s Common Market
Protocol will open the borders for free exchange of goods, professional
services and factors of production such as capital and labour.
In preparation for cross-border exchange of labour
and other services, the region has reached agreement on Mutual
Recognition of Qualifications in East Africa with plans underway to turn
East Africa into a single higher education area by 2015.
In November, the five heads of state signed a
Monetary Union Protocol that seeks to give the region is common central
bank and a single currency by 2024
.
.
Kenya also teamed up with Rwanda and Uganda to accelerate infrastructure development on Mombasa-Kampala-Kigali corridor.
In 2014, the bloc has listed transparency in recruitment to regional bodies among its top priorities.
In future, hiring of staff for bloc’s bodies will
be done through professional firms as opposed to current practice where
state organs make references, Dr Sezibera said
No comments :
Post a Comment