President Yoweri Museveni and his Kenyan counterpart President Uhuru Kenyatta have agreed that two crude oil pipelines be constructed. The oil pipeline from Lokichar to Lamu in Kenya and another oil pipeline from Hoima to Tanga in Tanzania will be developed by the countries respectively.
This is contained in a communiqué that was issued at the end of the one-day 13th Summit of the Northern Corridor Integration Projects Summit that took place today at Munyonyo Commonwealth Hotel in Kampala.
Member countries of the Northern Corridor Integration Projects are Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda and South Sudan. Ethiopia, Tanzania and Burundi sent observer delegations to the Munyonyo Summit.
The summit welcomed Tanzanias decision to invest in the shareholding of the Uganda oil refinery project. The meeting also endorsed the development of a framework for regional data roaming with maximum retail tariff of 11 American cents and a data accessing framework; a joint inspection on the construction of the 220KV and 400KV transmission lines as well as engaging the airline industry to enhance competition and reduce the cost of air travel in the region.
Regarding the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) Development, the heads of state welcomed the progress in the construction works of the Mombasa-Nairobi section that has reached 75% so far and is on course for completion in June 2017. They directed that the contractors for the Mombasa-Kampala section undertake operation of the section in the interim as the two Partner States (Kenya and Uganda), build their local capacities adding that the bankable feasibility studies for the remaining Northern, Western, Southern and Mirama-Kigali sections, be expedited.
President Museveni welcomed the Summits adoption of the Joint Schedule for Total Liberalization of Free Movement of Labour that will allow managers, technicians and artisans in crafts and professions, to work freely in the partner states. We do not want to sabotage the integration by allowing people of indiscipline to move from one country to another, the emphasized.
He also welcomed the private sectors commitment to provide innovative financing of the projects. He said the government of Uganda has partnered with the private sector to build warehouses for the integration projects.
The Munyonyo Summit commended the progress made in the implementation of the various projects and reiterated their resolve to continue the fasttracking of the Northern Corridor Integration Projects in order to accelerate regional integration and improve the livelihoods of the citizens in the region.
The Summit stressed the need to implement the projects with a sense of urgency and resolve the outstanding issues by the 14th Summit that sis slated to take place in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi at a date to be announced.
