“The Government of Japan firmly believes that in order to foster socio-economic development, the involvement of the private sector is key," Counselor Hiroyuki Kubota said. Japan has said it will support the East African Community (EAC) integration agenda as well as areas of cooperation between herself and the East African bloc. This was said at a consultative meeting between of the Government of Japan and the EAC Secretariat held at the EAC Headquarters, in Arusha. The Deputy Ambassador of Japan to the United Republic of Tanzania, Counselor Hiroyuki Kubota underscored Japan’s commitment to support and engage the EAC in various development projects and programs between the two regions. He added that engaging private sector will support development in the regions. “The Government of Japan firmly believes that in order to foster socio-economic development, the involvement of the private sector is key, and with this, the Government of Japan is committed to facilitating the involvement of the private sector in both regions to play its critical role in the EAC integration agenda,” he remarked. Appreciating Japan’s role in supporting the EAC both at the regional as well as bilateral levels, the EAC Secretary General, Dr Richard Sezibera said: “the collaboration with Japan ranks highly in terms of its contributions toward deeper EAC integration.” Among some of the projects that Japan has supported the EAC to achieve include the development of the One Stop Border Posts (both hard and soft infrastructure); development of the Vehicle Load Control and the One Stop Border...

The old East African passports will be replaced with new ones which will be recognized internationally. The phasing out will be done by Uganda’s Ministry of Internal Affairs. The current East African Passport cannot be used as a travel document outside East Africa because it does not meet the required international standards, says Jacob Siminyu, the spokesperson of the Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration. The new East African passport would be embedded with a microchip containing all the bio-data of the owner to enable the user to travel outside East Africa. The new passport will be launched on next Monday in Tanzania and all member countries of the East African Community will have to start phasing out the old East African passports. Source: Travel and Tour World