East African Community Secretariat, Arusha, 27, June 2014:The government has said that Tanzania's ratification of the East
African Community (EAC) Monetary Union Protocol on June 25th 2014
demonstrates that the country is not a stumbling block to regional
integration.
The Deputy Minister for East African Cooperation Hon. Dr Abdulla Saadalla said in Dodoma that Tanzania became the first country
to endorse the instrument, making a big step ahead of its EAC peers.
"We have made a huge step and demonstrated our commitment to EAC regional integration. We are not by any means a stumbling block
to the regional integration," Dr Abdulla Saadalla said.
The
next step is to dispatch the instrument of ratification to the EAC
Secretary General by the Clerk of Tanzanian National Assembly
as required by the Treaty for establishment of East African Community.
During debate on the Protocol, majority of Members of the Tanzania National Parliament said it was the right time to enter into
the third stage of EAC integration process as Tanzania is closer and thriving to lead in macro-economic convergence criteria.
Dr.
Saadalla said some Members of the Tanzania National Parliament had
reservations on the ratification of the Protocol especially
due to geo-politics dynamism and creation of the so called Coalition of
the Willing (CoW), but economic indicators convinced them that the
country was on right track to economic supremacy.
"We
are consistent in our commitments to meet and maintain all
macro-economic convergence criteria stipulated in the Protocol.
We are reaping the benefits of sound economic policies no wonder we are
among the top ten countries in Africa with an average of 7% GDP growth
per annum," Deputy Minister added.
Dr.
Saadalla noted the members of Parliament were also convinced by the
output generated by the government's newly created strategy-Big
Results Now (BRN).
The East African Monetary Union is the third stage of EAC integration and will ultimately lead the five-member bloc to adopt a
single currency regime by 2024.
The Protocol establishing the East African Monetary Union was signed by the EAC Heads of State on 30 November 2013, in Kampala
Uganda during their 15th Ordinary Summit.
The Protocol provides for a wide scope of co-operation in the monetary and financial sectors among the Partner States.
Under the Protocol, the EAC partner States are expected to surrender monetary and exchange rates policies to the East
African Central Bank leading to a single currency regime within
the region, whereas National Central Banks will remain with the mandate
of managing Fiscal policy, Fiscal discipline and harmonize them with the
other Partner States' National Central Banks.
The
Protocol will be implemented over a ten year period, subsequently
leading to creation of regional financial institutions whose
mandate will be to stabilize financial prices as well as monitoring,
surveillance, statistics and enforcing compliance of all other macro
finance matters, including buffering of any emerging economic shocks.
Dr.
Saadalla said the Union will eliminate the costs attendant to juggling
different currencies thereby reducing transaction costs
and minimizing inflation in the region, thus creating an economically
stabilized region with a conducive environment for Direct Foreign
Investment and therefore uplifting the economic standard of its people.
ENDS
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