Ｄｅｌｅｇａｔｉｏｎ ｏｆ Ｍｉｎｉｓｔｅｒｓ ｏｆ Ｅａｓｔ Ａｆｒｉｃａｎ Ｃｏｍｍｕｎｉｔｙ Ｖｉｓｉｔｓ Ｃｈｉｎａ

Ｌｉｕ　Ｈｏｎｇｍｉｎ

Received by the CPAFFC, a 17-member delegation of ministers in charge of the East African Community (EAC) affairs of the EACs five countries led by Hon. Eriya Kategaya, Ugandan first deputy prime minister and minister of the EAC affairs, paid a goodwill visit to Beijing, Yichang and Shenzhen from May 5 to 14.

The EAC founded in 2000 is a regional organization composed of five East African countries, namely Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda with its secretariat in Arusha of Tanzania. The EAC aims to expand and deepen mutually beneficial cooperation and development in politics, economy and trade among its member countries and with other countries. The EAC established a tariff union in 2005 and plans to establish a common market by 2010 so as to realize free flow of personnel and commodities within the EACs five members. Its goal is to establish a monetary union and on this basis the East African political federation by 2012.

In Beijing CPAFFC President Chen Haosu, CPAFFC Vice President Feng Zuoku, Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Assistant Foreign Minister Zhai Jun and Vice Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng met with the delegation on separate occasions.

Eriya Kategaya, head of the delegation, said, China and Africa enjoy traditional friendship and the Chinese people are good friends of the African people. The Chinese Government has always helped Africa sincerely with no conditions attached. He said that he had visited China many times and that every time he saw new development in China. He expressed his admiration for the achievements China had made.

He said, China keeps friendly relations and close cooperation with the EAC five member countries. This time the five countries, as a whole, visit China hoping to deepen cooperation with China. He held, a single country is not potent enough to attract large investment. The EAC has set up a platform of common development for its five members, which will help attract large investment in their construction and realize common development. The EAC with rich natural resources has a lot of opportunities of investment and welcomes Chinese big companies and businessmen to make investments there. The delegation had talks successively with China Road and Bridge Corporation in Beijing, China Gezhouba Group Corporation in Yichang and Huawei Technologies in Shenzhen. The details of cooperation plan have not yet been discussed. The delegation hoped that Chinese companies would make on-the-spot investigation for the construction of highway and railway networks in the five countries so as to consummate the plan and eventually construct the network of communication in the EAC. The EAC and China Gezhouba Group Corporation signed the Memorandum on the Framework of Cooperation in Energy and Infrastructure Construction.