East African Community
PRESS RELEASE
FINLAND BOOSTS EAC PARTNERSHIP FUND
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 10 December 2013:
The
Finnish Government has granted 3 million Euros to support various
regional integration activities through the EAC Partnership Fund. The
Grant Agreement was signed by EAC Secretary
General Amb. Dr Richard Sezibera and Finnish Ambassador to the United
Republic of Tanzania who is also accredited to EAC bloc Her
Excellency Amb. Sinikka Antila during the ceremony held at the Mount Meru Hotel in Arusha, Tanzania.
“
It is a great pleasure for me to make the commitment for 3 additional
year’’ It is worth noticing that after DFID ,Finland is the second
biggest supporter to the Fund
since 2008,remarked Finnish Ambassador
According
to the signed agreement between the Government of Finland and East
African Community, the Government of Finland shall make available on a
grant basis and subject
to annual parliamentary approval in Finland ,a contribution amounting
up to a maximum of three million Euros to support the EAC Partnership
Fund during the period of 2013-2016.
The
first payment of one million Euros shall be made against a written
request upon the entry into force of the agreement. Subsequent payments
shall be made in accordance
with the actual progress of the activities and on the basis of the
financial needs for the coming period, against a written request.
EAC
Secretary General Amb. Richard Sezibera thanked the Government of
Finland for their continued support in the Partnership Fund . He
commended Finnish Government for seeing the need to intensify development co-operation within the EAC.
Amb
Sezibera said that the signing of multi-year agreements with
development partners made it possible to predict the contribution to the
Partnership Fund and therefore facilitated
the development of EAC multi-year plans.
Meanwhile EAC Secretary General today held a High Level Dialogue with the Heads of Missions and
supporters of Partnership Fund.
The
dialogue between the two parties focused on the on-going institutional
review, financing of the Community, trade and investment, the EAC
Partnership Fund, negotiations of South Sudan
to join the Community ,signing for the Monetary Union Protocol,
Economic and COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite talks
EAC
Chief briefly informed the Heads of Mission about move towards a
single customs territory in 2014 was high on the region’s agenda; as
well as implementation of the
Common Market Protocol. He added the region was also focusing on
infrastructure development and recently signing of the Monetary Union
Protocol by the EAC Heads of State in Kampala
In
attendance were representatives from UK/DFID, Germany, Finland,
France, Sweden, Norway, European Union, USA, World Bank, Belgium,
Canada, Japan, Denmark,
Turkey, Netherlands, among others.
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