| Mr Kikwete. |
President Jakaya Kikwete has advised the East African
Community (EAC) Secretariat here to take things slowly as far as the proposed
Monetary Union in the region is concerned.
The first EAC, which collapsed in 1977 started
crumbling at the monetary union stage around 1963 when each of the founding
three states.
The Tanzanian Head of State was addressing members of the
East African Legislative Assembly (EALA), at the latter's ongoing third Meeting
of the first Session of the Assembly, which is taking place at the newly
inaugurated EAC headquarters in Arusha.
"At the moment, teams of negotiators are investigating
what exactly went wrong during the maiden EAC's monetary union plans so as to
help the current community to iron out flaws before attempting a second feat in
that direction," explained President Kikwete.
He insisted that when it comes to money, issues do get
sensitive. It is envisaged that by embracing a single currency, EAC partner
states would remove the costs of having to transact in different currencies and
the risk of adverse exchange rate movements for traders and travellers alike
within the region.
The monetary union stage is the third step for the
integration after agreeing on a Customs Union and a Common Market. The next
step that is planned after the Monetary Union is a Political federation.
"This is the second year of our common market stage but very little has
been accomplished.
I expected to see people from the five member states moving
freely across the borders," stated Mr Kikwete. The East Africa Community
member states; Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi and Tanzania; are still grappling
with plans for a regional Monetary Union Protocol whose deadline is drawn for
next month.
The ongoing regional parliament sessions on the other hand,
expect to receive Bills from the Council of Ministers, receive and consider
reports from various Committees of the Assembly and consider Motions and
Questions brought before the House.
The Assembly is being presided over by the EALA Speaker, Dr
Margaret Nantongo Zziwa, and during the two-week period of its sitting here, it
will discuss matters of legislative business.
The EALA sitting also expects to
receive Bills from the Council of Ministers and consider reports from various
Committees of the Assembly. It will also hear motions and questions brought
before the House.
Source: The Daily News, www.dailynews.co.tz, by Marc Nkwame in Arusha
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