Also to benefit are entrepreneurship projects for the youth as well as technical and vocational training.

“We, at the EAC, fully embrace the priority areas embedded in our cooperation with Germany,” said EAC secretary general Liberat Mfumukeko here on Friday.

He spoke to a high powered delegation from the economic power house in Europe which visited Arusha with a pledge of 61.5 million euros as economic support to the region. The event coincided with the 20th anniversary of the joint partnership between Germany and the EAC economic bloc which was in its infancy stage.

Mr Mfumukeko hailed the German support to the Community in the last two decades, saying it has enabled the bloc to record significant achievements in diverse sectors.

Sectors which benefited include monetary harmonisation, trade and customs, institutional capacity strengthening, health and pharmaceuticals,gender and education and the Partnership Fund.

Economic diversification, mobilisation of the private capital, value addition and investment in entrepreneurship are among other priority areas in the German-EAC development cooperation, he explained.

Mr Niels Breyer, the head of the Division East Africa at the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in Germany, elaborated his country’s support to the EAC is based in the Marshal Plan for Africa.

The plan aims aims to support the six partner countries in the region in implementing the development visions and reform goals of the African Union’s Agenda 2063.

Mr Breyer stressed the need for mutual commitments and called on the EAC to strengthen their own financial resources.

“Closer economic cooperation will lead to the creation of job opportunities and improve the long-term prospects for young people throughout the region,” he pointed out.

In the area of “Regional Economic and Social Integration”, the German side committed 9.5 million euros, specifically to promote intra-regional trade through value addition in productive sectors, better market access, improved customs processes and harmonized standards.

Some euro 1 million will be in support for the ongoing programme “Strengthening of a Regional Quality Infrastructure while euros 13 million will be for additional support of the Regional Network of Laboratories for Communicable Diseases.

Source The Citizen