Minister urges China to help EAC develop

East African Community minister Hellen Sambili has urged the Chinese Government to offer financial and technical assistance to regional bloc members.

She said the states require China’s financial and technical help particularly in the development of the energy and rail transport sectors.

The minister said possible areas of partnership include development of renewable power generation projects such as geothermal and wind and cross border electricity interconnection.

She said that bloc was implementing the East African power master plan which recommends the establishment of a power pool noting that it had identified potential projects for joint promotion in a bid to improve reliability.

Prof Sambili said possible areas of engagement in petroleum industry include development of pipelines citing the proposed Dar es Salaam to Mombasa gas pipeline.

She said a feasibility study is being carried out adding that harmonisation of policy and legal regimes for petroleum exploration and production in EAC through technical support to the task force on the exercise is ongoing.

The minister spoke yesterday when she hosted a visiting Chinese delegation in her office.

The team was led by Prof Yang Jiemian, the president of Shanghai Institute for International Studies. He was accompanied by the Chinese ambassador to Kenya Liu Guangyuan.

Regarding development of the railway lines, the minister said the network currently carries on average less that 10 per cent of the cargo hence over-burdening roads as it is on the narrow gauge system.

She said the community had resolved to upgrade the network from narrow gauge to standard gauge with the aim of improving its capacity by over 200 per cent.

Removal of non-tariff barriers

“The EAC Railways Master Plan estimates the total cost of upgrading the network to be $29 billion,” she said.

The minister called on the Chinese Government to partner with the EAC in upgrading the line as well as development of the new Lamu-Juba railway corridor.

Prof Sambili said other areas where the EAC could partner with China include the support on identification and removal of non-tariff barriers to trade, development of one-stop-border-posts where no funding is available especially Isebania and Taveta points.

Others are development of maritime transport within the lake Victoria Basin including dredging of the ports and technology transfer in agro-processing, and investment in value addition locally.

The minister asked the Chinese Government to help in the development of e-learning in local universities and other institutions of higher education saying China had a very developed ICT sector.

Prof Sambili said the Chinese Government had contributed greatly to the growth of the region’s economies particularly in road infrastructure.

She said its support has made the community to be one of the most ideal tourist and investment destinations on the continent.

Prof Jiemian said China and other emerging Asian economic giants such as Japan, Korea, India and Pakistan had recorded impressive development through investing heavily in the education of young people.