A decision on South Sudan’s application to join the East African Community (EAC) will be made in April next year, according to a press release from the recently concluded EAC summit in the Ugandan capital, Kampala.
South Sudan applied to join the bloc shortly after attaining independence from Sudan in July 2011. At the summit in Kampala, an EAC official said that a team had been formed to look into South Sudan’s application before making a decision. EAC members must ‘maintain a market driven economy and adhere to good governance, democracy and respect of human rights’.
Analysts say South Sudan will gain a lot from admission to the the regional bloc. It will have access to a market of 140 million people and benefit from existing infrastructure such as roads, railways and airports.
At the Kampala summit member countries also signed a monetary union protocol, due to be operational at the beginning of next year. This is expected to further advance the collective economic integration. (Source: Sudan Tribune)
File photo: The three heads of the East African Community partner states (Kenya , Uganda and Tanzania), in December 2006 with the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi (AICC)