East Africa: Rwanda, Burundi join EAC

(SomaliNet) The East African Community expanded its members to five on Sunday as Rwanda and Burundi joined the East African regional bloc.

Membership became official as planned since Rwanda and Burundi fulfilled all requirements by the time they signed entry agreements on June 18, Kenyan and Ugandan officials said.

\"According to the agreement that was signed, Rwanda and Burundi have become members of the EAC starting today (Sunday),\" a Ugandan foreign ministry official said.

Officials said, Rwanda and Burundi would effectively, benefit from the EAC customs union, which entered into force in January 2005 and set common tariffs for goods entering the region.
Meanwhile, the EAC countries plan to hold referendums by September 2009 on adopting a common currency and formally creating a federation with a president, cabinet, parliament and Supreme Court by January 2010.

The EAC, originally established in 1967, collapsed a decade later amid deteriorating ties and diverging economic philosophies. The relative economic strength of Kenya also eroded the viability of the bloc.

It was resurrected in 2000 as leaders of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania agreed to create a European Union-style common market for their 90 million citizens to strengthen their economic and political clout.

The region, with the two new members, now has a land area of 1.9 million square kilometres, a population of around 115 million people and a combined Gross Domestic Product of more than 41 billion dollars.

The EAC\'s budgets increased to a total of $28,3-million (about R200-million) for the 2007/2008 fiscal year, up from $18-million (about R127-million) in the current fiscal year, Kibaki said. - Sapa-AFP