EAC secretary general Richard Sezibera with Indian High Commissioner to Tanzania Sujay Kumar at the EAC headquarters in Arusha soon after holding talks on cooperation. PHOTO | COURTESY
What you need to know:
India agreed to set up the four institutions in the region following a decision taken at the Second Summit of the government of India-Africa Forum held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in May 2011.
The East African Community (EAC) will form four new institutions, mainly to support infrastructure development and agricultural projects, through technical assistance from India.
The bodies that are to be hosted by the partner states include a Farm Science Centre, Material Testing Laboratory, Agriculture Seed Production / Demonstration Centre and a Soil, Water and Tissue Testing Laboratory.
India agreed to set up the four institutions in the region following a decision taken at the Second Summit of the government of India-Africa Forum held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in May 2011.
A high-powered delegation from India led by the country’s High Commissioner to Tanzania, Mr Sujay Kumar, visited the EAC headquarters last weekend for talks on the issue. During the talks, the two sides agreed to review the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in 2011 focussing on four areas: infrastructure, agriculture and agro-processing, skill development and capacity building.
EAC secretary general Richard Sezibera led the community officials during the talks which also touched on how to enhance coordination between the East African Business Council (EABC) and the Confederation of Indian Industries.
Other regional infrastructure projects covered under the MoU between the two sides include those in the railways and energy sectors, the Arusha-based secretariat said in a statement yesterday.
EAC officials, however, did not say when the proposed institutions would be established, their locations within the region and whether they were only short-term or long-term programmes. If created, they would add up to the number of institutions under the Community spread out throughout the five partner states; Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Burundi and Rwanda.
The Arusha-based EAC has three principal organs: the Secretariat, the judicial and legislative. arms are the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) and the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) respectively.
EAC institutions include the Lake Victoria Basin Commission (LVBC) based in Kisumu, Kenya, the Lake Victoria Fisheries Organization (LVFO) operating from Jinja Uganda and the East African Development Bank located at Kampala.
Others are the Inter University Council of East Africa (IUCEA) and the Civil Aviation Safety and Security Oversight Agency (Cassoa), both based in Uganda.
Institutions which are lined up to be established include the EA Kiswahili Research Commission, EA Health Research Council, EA Science and Technology Commission and others.
