NAIROBI, Kenya May 25 – The East African Community is set to come up with a common economic blue print in an effort to streamline varying economic policies.
Vision 2030 Delivery Board Director General Mugo Kibati said on Tuesday that syncronising the region’s economic strategies would be important if partner States are to remain at par and avoid creating major gaps in terms of economic development.
Mr Kibati who spoke at the two-day EuroFinance conference in Nairobi said talks were at an advanced stage to encourage seamless intergration with a common ideology.
“I have met with the East African Community Secretariat and are still in discussions of how to synergise our visions,” Mr Kibati said.
The move is seen as a cushion to integrated economic models that are increasingly coming under pressure years after they are formed.
Apart from Kenya’s vision 2030, Tanzania, Uganda and Burundi have Vision 2025 while Rwanda has already embarked on its Vision 2020.
Whereas all the economic blueprints share a common goal, they are at different levels of implementation and have varying implementation strategies.
Peter Green, a Director at TransactionBanking.com said it would be prudent for the region to draw closely from what was going on in the Euro Zone to avoid making similar mistakes.
“What I would expect is for regional blocks to look at what is going on in the world and say there are some valuable lessons we can learn. We are going through uncharted waters, how would we respond in that situation and construct our regional model that can withstand seismic shocks in the economy?” Mr Green posed.
The European Union has come into focus over the last few months as a budget deficit in Greece threatens to destabilise the Euro.
Moreover, as the EAC looks to form a wider market by joining the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) and the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) there is need to address the superior nature of the three economies.
The Ministry of Trade has already presented proposals such as adoption of a flexible framework that accommodates the needs of the individual countries participating in the grand FTA negotiations.
