Tanzania and Burundi have signed multibillion-dollar infrastructure projects, with their sights on the huge Democratic Republic of Congo market.
The deals come at a time when DR Congo has inched closer to joining the East African Community, after the EAC technical committee okayed its bid. The Council of Ministers is expected to deliver its verdict in November in time for the Heads of State Summmit.
With the entry of Kinshasa in the bloc comes a treasure trove of minerals, wood products and agricultural produce, which all EAC partners have been eyeing. Congo, with a population of about 90 million people, provides a huge consumer market for which the EAC economies have been jostling.
While some of the goods have been passing through the port of Mombasa through the Northern Corridor, Tanzania’s leader Samia Suluhu Hassan has accelerated Dodoma’s pitch for the states in the Great Lakes region to use the Central Corridor for their imports and exports.
On Friday, President Samia hosted Burundi’s Evariste Ndayishimiye, where the construction of roads and standard gauge railway lines to connect Tanzania and Burundi to DR Congo dominated the talks.
Landlocked Burundi heavily depends on the Dar es Salaam port and the Central Corridor for transporting its imports and exports and the new projects are meant to enhance efficiency and rope in the new kid on the bloc, Kinshasa.
Source: The EastAfrica