SPEECH BY H.E.

YOWERI KAGUTA MUSEVENI

AT THE EAST AFRICAN LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 4th MEETING OF THE 2ND SESSION

21ST JANUARY, 2 14

PARLIAMENTARY BUILDING KAMPALA

His Excellency the Vice President Right Honourable Speaker, EALA, Honourable Ministers of East Africa, Honourable Me bers of EALA, Ladies and !entle en"

# greet you and $elco e you to %ganda" # ha&e talked to you before on the sub'ect of East African integration" (n the )* th of April, )+,-, in
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.igali, # addressed you on this issue" #n Addis Ababa on the )/ th of May, )+,-, # addressed the A%, on our /+ th Anni&ersary, on the sa e issue" # ha&e also addressed yself to this sub'ect any other ti es"

0herefore, today # $ill not address

yself to the rationale of East yself on the exa ples of the

African integration" # $ill, rather, address

decisions and gains $e ha&e been able to push and achie&e, in an fairly short ti e, on the 1orthern corridor" 2irst, $e addressed oursel&es to the 1on3tariff barriers 4105s6" (n account of these 105s, it $ould take ,7 days for a container to re o&ing reduced fro road3blocks, procedures and been reduced fro o&e fro Mo basa to .a pala" ultiple 5y $eigh3bridges, axi u ad inistrati&e

ultiple bonds, the days the container takes ha&e been * days" 0o .igali, the days ha&e )) to 8 or 9 days"

,7 to - days or

0he $eigh3bridges $ere reduced to one in each country : .enya at Mariakani, %ganda, at Malaba;5usia and R$anda at .atuna" Multiple bonds ha&e been reduced to one" Pay ent of a single bond has sa&ing for %ganda and R$anda of %S< */ illion per year" ade a

5usiness en;$o en no longer re=uire to tra&el to Mo basa to clear goods" 5usiness people can clear the goods in .a pala through the %RA and .igali through the RRA and by using one clearing agent unlike in the past $hen ultiple clearing agents $ere re=uired"

As far as %ganda>s fuel i ports are concerned, a sa&ing of ,? days has been reali@ed by the petrol i porters : uch faster" #n the three of the 1orthern Aorridor countries, people are tra&elling freely using digiti@ed #Bs, the fact that %ganda has not co pleted the i ple entation of its #B pro'ect not$ithstanding" 0his is in contrast to the passports that are expensi&e and take long to ac=uire" 0he single tourist &isa $as supposed to start on the ,st of Canuary, )+,*" 0here $as a delay but it $ill start in 2ebruary, )+,*" 0his tourist, ha&ing got a &isa fro eans that a an e bassy of one the Me ber States, aking the turn3round ti e

can freely tra&el to the others using the sa e &isa" 0his costs only %S< ,++" Pre&iously, tourists had to seek and pay for each of the separate &isas to one of the Me ber States" (b&iously, this $ill increase the
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tourists in the region" 0he %S dollar is shared a ong Me ber States $ith the issuing country taking %S< ,+ and, then, in addition to 'oining, they e=uitably di&ide the Canuary, )+,*" 0here are other pro'ects such as the oil refinery, the oil pipelines, pro'ects in electricity generation on $hich co undertaken" De ha&e discussed $ith other e bers of EAA and they are looking at on action is being oney a ong the e bers" A single custo s territory $as launched in (ctober and beca e operational by the , st of

the Aentral Aorridor" President .ik$ete is follo$ing up the issues of the central corridor and he $ill be in touch $ith us" .enya has already started the construction of the standard gauge rail$ay : all the $ay fro fro Mo basa to Malaba" %ganda is also $orking on the Malaba to 1i ule and plans to build a standard gauge rail$ay fro

Malaba to .a pala3 .asese and the R$anda border" De already

ha&e a $ater;rail$ay link $ith 0an@ania through M$an@a" De hope that 0an@ania reconstructs that rail$ay and up3grade it" Rail$ay transport, if
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efficient, $ill reduce the cost of transport" Lo$er transport costs business should be no

ake

ore profitable" Dith the potentials our econo ies ha&e, there inute to lose" #ntegration is a sinequa non of socio3

econo ic transfor ation and greater strategic security" Violence and ar ed conflicts are, ho$e&er, unfortunately, still ende ic in our region : in south Sudan, Aongo, etc" 0hese conflicts are fueled, ainly, by ideological actors, external to ake istakes" istakes, poor discipline of so e of the political De need to &igorously cure these ust" istakes" eddling and $eak state structures that lure opportunists

0horough and honest dialogue on these issues is a

(ther$ise, the econo ies of East African are gro$ing, the bottlenecks they still face, not$ithstanding" 5y the end of this financial year, the econo y of %ganda $ill be 9+ trillion shillings" 0his is about %S< )7 billion" 0his is still too lo$ by Dorld standards" Ho$e&er, bearing in ind the &ery lo$ le&el $e started fro in ,E78, this is =uite an achie&e ent" 0he !BP of %ganda in ,E78 $as only %S< ,"/ billion" 0herefore, the econo y of %ganda has expanded in si@e by a factor of al ost ,E : i"e" ,E ti es bigger than it $as in ,E78" De $ould ha&e
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achie&ed e&en pro'ects"

ore if it $as not for internal lack of cohesion that delays

# congratulate the East Africans on the achie&e ent of the Monetary %nion that $e agreed on in the last su it" 0he Me ber States ust re e ber that one crucial sti ulus for socio3econo ic transfor ation is infrastructure : roads, the rail$ays, electricity, #A0 backbone, piped $ater, teleco unications, etc, etc" #t is these that $ill lo$er the costs of doing business in the East African econo ies" 0he best guide in order to understand this issue, is to for instance, look at Ahina, a *+ft container costs %S < ,,8++ to be transported fro distance of ,,)-7 to be transported fro Shanghai to 5ei'ing, a iles" iles $hile a si ilar container $ould cost %S < -,9++ Mo basa to .a pala a distance of ,,),)

A unit of industrial electricity costs %S cents 7 in Ahina $hile in %ganda it costs %S cents ,)"* and in .enya it costs %S cents ,-"9" De cannot fa&ourably co pete if $e aintain disad&antages to our producers"

(n the issue of the Soroti 2lying School, it is true that $e bought for the ne$ training planes and $e ha&e repaired the buildings" 0he ci&il ser&ants in %ganda, ho$e&er, ha&e been sabotaging its progress by
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under paying the instructor pilots" # ha&e ordered to stop this" #f East African $ants to take o&er that institution, you are East Africa is ost $elco e" 0he

o&ing ahead, the constraints not$ithstanding" iss the opportunities, again"

Parliamentary Building

future is in our hands" Let us not

21st January 2014