DAVID MUWANGA

KAMPALA, UGANDA - The Dutch Ambassador to Tanzania, Dr. Ad Koekoekk, has been appointed by his country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs to represent his country to the East African Community (EAC) secretariat in Arusha, Tanzania.

He presented his credentials to the EAC Secretary General, Ambassador Juma Mwapachu at a function attended by the EAC Deputy Secretaries General; Dr Julius Rotich of Finance and Administration and Beatrice Kiraso in charge of Political Federation among others.

The Ambassador hailed the rate at which the East African Community's integration process is being handled, singling out the process to institute a Common Market, which was launched 1 July this year.

"The Netherlands government attaches great value to a process where East African countries set on the same road to what we consider prosperity. Regional integration was an important first step to global integration," he remarked.

He told Mwapachu that Netherlands is ready to share its experiences of integration with the EAC. The Kingdom of Netherlands is a founding member of the European Union.

Mwapachu said the region values this relationship and noted that the nomination of the envoy to the secretariat adds value to the bloc since the former is a driver of integration in Europe.

He said the European Union is a good example to learn from and the Netherlands in particular as a case study that there are benefits in regional integration.

"There is a lot we can learn on how the various participants in a bloc can be able to build a win-win situation," he noted.

He said that the EAC was keen to take lessons from the EU on building of robust intra-regional trade, which stands at over 60% in the case of the European bloc compared to 11% in the EAC.

He however said the region is still faced with challenges from infrastructure to agricultural production and peace and security.

Mwapachu hailed the Ducth government for the ongoing efforts to shore up the Customs Union, ensure peace and security and engender principles of good governance in the region with a view to enhancing trade.

"We are very much concerned about these security challenges and we'll continue to work with EU and the US to ensure our region deals with these security threats".

Mwapachu also invited the Netherlands to join the Partnership Fund, a basket fund with contributions from Development Partners to support activities in the EAC.

The Dutch ambassador is the fifth to be accredited to the EAC. Democratic Republic of Congo, Turkey, Denmark and USA have also nominated representatives to the bloc.