At the 14th Summit of the Northern Corridor Integration Projects (NCIP) held in Nairobi, Kenya, President Paul Kagame urged key players across the region to form partnerships in order to develop the lives of its citizens.
“We had made headway in bringing government, businesses, local and foreign investors in partnership to enable these projects that are important to the development of our citizens. There is always going to be a lot of work to do but this moment provides an opportunity to re-examine what has been done and what we still need to do,” he said.
During the summit, the leaders reviewed the progress made in the implementation of the several resolutions reached at the 13th Summit. Among the important projects that were discussed during the meeting is the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) which is to connect the port of Mombasa to Kigali through Uganda.
In the joint communiqué, the East African leaders reaffirmed their commitment to advancing regional integration while underscoring the importance of accelerating socio-economic transformation, industrialisation and creation of employment. For easy circulation of petroleum products in the region as a major source of industrial and domestic energy, the leaders agreed to come up with ‘the Lake Victoria intermodal transport system’ while waiting on consultations on re-scoping of refined petroleum products pipeline. Also, the leaders agreed to generate more funding for the development of centres of excellence to enable creation of human resource capacities needed for the sustenance of NCIP projects.
Present at the summit were President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, President Salva Kiir of South Sudan duly represented by a special envoy Aggrey Tisa Sabuni, Kenya’s Deputy President William Ruto as well as representatives of Tanzania, Burundi and Ethiopia, countries which have an observer status in the NCIP.
