East African Business Week

ARUSHA, TANZANIA-Despite a warning by the Former German President Prof. Dr. Horst Kohler that the Monetary Union negotiations can not be completed in one year, the EAC Secretary General Amb. Dr. Richard Sezibera has insisted that the protocol establishing the union will be signed soon.
“Neither the Customs Union nor the Common Market Protocol are as good as expected, tell the Heads of State that signing protocols and agreements is one thing and implementing is another thing,” cautioned the Prof. Kohler.
 “It is important to implement the signed protocols first because they help build trust in the people who in turn will know that the protocols bring good results, implementation is very important,” he noted.
However Dr. Sezibera replied that the region’s integration process is speedy by design and that he is confident that EAC can have the Monetary Union protocol soon.
“The integration agenda is speedy by design, I am confident we can have the Monetary Union protocol signed soon but also sure that implementation will take a longer time,”                he explained during a roundtable discussion organized by the EAC and Konrad Adenauer Stiftung last week on the theme “Ambition for and Reality of the East African Community in a Globalized World,” at Mt. Meru hotel in Arusha, Tanzania.
The EAC in January this year inaugurated the High Level Task Force (HLTF) to negotiate the Protocol to establish the East African Monetary Union (EAMU) whose implementation was slated for the year 2012.
Prof. Kohler however also advised that its not possible to create a Monetary Union by 2012.
“Please take time, you should complete the first step before you go to another step,” he warned.
Prof. Kohler told East African Business Week in an interview that he is not saying that the negotiations should be prolonged but the negotiators should stick to the momentum while negotiating.
“This however may take to between two to three years but not one year,’ he emphasized,” he added.
He said that the EAC is a good project and if implemented well will serve interests of the people and enable the community to negotiate as a stronger bloc. “But I recommend that you work very hard to remove bottlenecks to the achievement of the Customs Union and the Common Market because free movement is a pre-condition for the two to be developed,” he said.
Full  report on our website: www.busiweek.com