The New Vision
President Kagame to host 3rd Infrastructure Summit in Kigali.
President Kagame will welcome President Museveni of Uganda, President Kenyatta of Kenya and President Salva Kiir of South Sudan to Kigali for the 3rd Infrastructure Summit on 28 October 2013.
The summit is an initiative bringing together the four countries to fast track regional development through infrastructure, trade and political and economic integration.
At the inaugural Tripartite Summit held in Entebbe in June this year, leaders of Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda spearhead different components of joint projects: Uganda committed to lead the railway development and political federation sector; Rwanda on customs, single tourist visa and East African Community e-identity card; and Kenya on the implementation of the oil pipeline and electricity generation.
The follow-up summit held in Mombasa saw the heads of state participate in the commissioning of Berth 19, which will increase capacity of the Kenyan port to serve the entire region.
At the Kigali summit next week, leaders will welcome South Sudan to the initiative, launch the Single Customs Territory and review the progress of infrastructure projects led by each country.
The Summit will review the following:
Updated status on the progress of Infrastructure projects spearheaded Rwanda;
The use of national identity cards, voter and student cards as travel documents will be implemented starting from 1st January 2014.
The use of a single tourist visa between Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda is envisaged to start on 1st January 2014. Rwanda will procure the first batch of visa stickers by December 2013, followed by Kenya in March 2014 and Uganda in June 2014. Additionally, the three countries have agreed to set up a one stop boarder post and modalities for revenue sharing.
During the summit, the Heads of State will launch the Single Customs Territory. With this, time spent moving goods along the corridor will reduce from 18 days to 5 days from Mombasa to Kampala and from 21 days to 8 days from Mombasa to Kigali.
Additionally, customs declaration and customs security bonds will reduce from 3 to 1.