World Bank to assist EAC states achieve full integration

The World Bank has assured it will work with the East African Community (EAC) partner states to help the economic community achieve full integration.

The World Bank programme Manager for South Sudan, Jean Lubega-Kyazze told Xinhua in Nairobi that the project will begin before the end of 2016 and will take three years to complete.

She explained that the project aims at helping the EAC overcome the constraints that have prevented full implementation of the EAC Common Market protocol.

“We have identified the constraints that each country needs to overcome in order for the EAC to be fully integrated. Each country is unique and therefore has different constraints,” she added.

According to the financial institution, regional integration holds a lot of promise for the partner states. “It will create a seamless market for goods produced in each member state,” Lubega said.

The programme manager observed that one of the key constraints to full integration is the lack of integration of regional policies into national policies.

“So national policies don’t reflect what has been agreed upon at the EAC level and it is common to find cases where national policies don’t include positions reached upon at the regional level,” she added.

EAC Common Market Protocol was signed in 2010 but the trading block is yet to fully liberalize the free movement of goods, services and labour.

EAC member states include Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, South Sudan and Burundi.