The East Africa Community secretariat has pledged to address infrastructural bottlenecks along the corridors to improve regional trade. This comes barely weeks after the official commencement of the East Africa common market agreement signed in Nairobi recently.

 EAC Secretary General Amb. Juma Mwapachu said it was necessary to integrate all ports in the union to adequately respond to the rising demand of cargo. “Development of these ports is vital and there is need to make a linkage with railway, road and ports to improve the network serving the whole region,” he said.

 He was leading the EAC secretariat technical team on an information gathering tour of the port of Mombasa last week where he was received by the KPA Ag. Managing Director Mr. Gichiri Ndua.

 Amb. Mwapachu was impressed with the ports performance over the years and its relations with stakeholders saying it was excellent to understand and learn challenges facing the port and work towards mitigating them. He urged both Kenya Ports Authority and Tanzania Ports Authority to encourage complimentary roles between the ports of Mombasa and Dar es Salaam instead and work towards maintaining standard respective efficiency levels.

 Kenya Ports Authority has initiated and implemented development programmes geared towards making the port of Mombasa among the best ports in the world. Mr. Ndua said that  cargo interveners were required to unite to reduce cargo off-take period, increase fluidity of movement of cargo along the corridor and improve rail transport.

 Mr. Ndua also said that the East Africa Community was expected to fuel development of proper infrastructure and in the long run increase port traffic and enable the port to serve the region better.

 Amb. Mwapachu said the region could not achieve growth in its industry and agricultural sectors without reliable and robust infrastructure. “This is why we need a holistic approach to address issues of ports, road, rail, security and energy that will send a right signal to the world for potential investments,” he added.

 EAC is expected to open up the regional market, establish a unique market to attract investors and spur the economic growth in the region. The region is currently endowed with successful international economic system with 40% increase in regional trade and 12 % share of global trade. The Secretary General, however, said it was time  member states capitalized on the common market agreement.

 The customs procedures in the region are scheduled to change with the establishment of a fully fledged customs union expected to enable the collection of tax at the first point of entry for goods. This, according to EAC, will allow goods to circulate freely in the common market.

 The port of Mombasa has witnessed increased growth in container traffic over the years and had last year registered record container traffic of 618,816 TEUs. The construction of the second container terminal is expected to double port’s handling capacity once completed with Phase one of the project scheduled to be fully operational by 2013 and will handle 450,000 TEUs.

 Other projects the EAC is spearheading include the development of Malindi - Bagamoyo road that will link Lamu, Northern and Central corridor and construction of Taveta – Voi road. The development projects are expected to increase fluidity of cargo and improve efficiency in handling of the regional bound goods.

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 For further information, please contact Public Relations Office, Tel: +254 41 2112393/ 2112228/2112345. Email: pr@kpa.co.ke. Website:  www.kpa.co.ke