NAIROBI, March 5 (Xinhua) — Trademark East Africa, a regional trade promotion agency, said on Thursday it will raise 16.3 billion shillings (about 160 million U.S. dollars) to promote the development of green transport and logistics corridors in the eastern African region.

Anthony Mveyange, director of the research and learning, Trademark East Africa, told a trade forum in Nairobi that it will source the funding from international development agencies to ensure that the transport sector in the region reduces its carbon footprint.

“We will partner with national governments to implement measures that incentivize the adoption of green transport mechanisms in the eastern African region,” Mveyange said during the launch of a report produced jointly by United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and Trademark East Africa in Nairobi.

Mveyange noted that the region is served with two key transport corridors that link the area to the rest of the world.

The northern transport corridor links Kenya’s port of Mombasa to Uganda and South Sudan, while the central transport corridor runs from Tanzania’s port of Dar es Salaam and serves Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Mveyange added that the transport sector is one of the key sources of greenhouse gas emissions hence the need to promote green methods of transportation.

He noted that regional integration has facilitated cross border trade meaning the volume of goods being transported has also increased.

“We want to counter the emission of pollution caused by more vehicles on the road as well as rail freight by promoting investments that are climate-sensitive,” he added. Enditem

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