By David Mugabe
A technical team from East African countries, which has been meeting in Kampala, has agreed on a pact paving way for free movement of labour in the region.
Professionals, services and capital owners will be able to move freely in the five countries once the Kampala Common Market Protocol is endorsed.
“Most of the pending issues have been finalised. Members reached a consensus on almost all the provisions of the proposed protocol and in essence came to the end of the negotiations,†Alloys Mutabingwa, the deputy secretary general in charge of planning and infrastructure, said yesterday.
The technical team has been in negotiations since last week but yesterday, the draft protocol was handed over to the permanent secretaries for consideration.
Negotiations end tomorrow with the meeting of the council of ministers from the region who will iron out the final details to be presented to the heads of state for signing in November 2010.
Speaking at the opening of the meeting by the permanent secretaries at the Imperial Royale Hotel in Kampala, the secretary general of the East African Community (EAC), Juma Mwapachu, reiterated the benefits of the common market.
This development, he said, is expected to stump out the bureaucracy associated with cross-border business and movement.
Prices of goods and services will drop, while more options will be presented to consumers in the region, he added.
Mwapachu, however, said the issues of poor infrastructure and a change of mindset among the workforce needed to be addressed.
He added that between September 30 and October 1, heads of state together with the EAC, COMESA and the Kenya Ports Authority will meet in Mombasa to address the Northern Corridor infrastructure.
The Minister of State for Trade, Gagawala Wambuzi, who represented the state minister for trade, Gen. Kahinda Otafiire, said EAC economies would get stronger with the new development.
The participants also noted that the customs union that was launched in 2005 had led to a rise of regional trade by 20%.