How east africa is moving to collaborate and create competitiveness on a global level.
Article written by Chakkrit Charoenlai for The Young Economist.
The proposal for a federation that brings together Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the development of years and years of planning, complexity and obstacles.
The idea of ​​a Union was born in the early 1960s, between Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania (the latter was divided at the time into Zanzibar and Tanganyika) during the British decolonization process of Africa. By 1964, the prospects for a true political union died amid rivalry, lack of confidence and English interference, which made the unification of East Africa difficult.
The idea of ​​a political union was brought to light in early 2010 with the creation of a single market, the East African Community, adding new members to the intergovernmental organization, the last of which was the DRC. This chapter of the saga is important because it is the precursor and foundation of the integration of the various member states, imitating the development of the European Union with its personal European Economic Community.
Not only does this reduce customs tariffs between member countries, but it also evens out the bureaucracy behind trade: standardizing paperwork reduces timing, costs and stimulates trade.
Infrastructure plans and economic stimuli are on the table, for example the port of Lamu, built in Kenya by the China Communications Construction Company, has an expected container storage capacity of 2.7 million TEU (Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit, an internationally standardized unit of measurement to refer to a container).
The project has created a commercial port that could potentially become the largest in Africa in terms of traffic thanks to its high cargo capacities. The plans also include an infrastructure plan to link South Sudan, Ethiopia and other locations via rail, along with plans to develop water, electricity and general services to support the steadily growing demand of the African middle class.
Following the example of the European experience, proposals for a single currency were put forward, the East African Shilling, and currently under development, together with a single tourist visa valid for the whole community area, as well as the freedom of movement of people, capital and freight (the latter, being implemented after the signing of the Addis Ababa Protocol in 2018).
The economic and social prospects of this Union are very alarming: we can observe the growth of the GDP (in US dollars) of the member countries, especially Kenya and Tanzania, the major players on the stage followed by the new member, bringing the total GDP of the area at about 260 billion with an average growth of 5% pre-pandemic.
East Africa has an unemployment rate almost unchanged since 2010, while the population is growing exponentially. Humanistic aspects such as access to electricity are on the rise, testifying to the industrialization and development phase of the region together with the use of the Internet by the population.
In the face of various positive factors, of course we can find several negative ones. The political instability of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, pollution, the criminal impact, corruption and organized crime are among the things that make development difficult, as well as the possible external influences due to a geopolitical imbalance in the region in view of a possible political union: as we can already see, the People's Republic of China is investing huge capital in Africa to secure resources and infrastructure; already the fact that it is the number one trading partner of most sub-Saharan countries gives China strong economic and political leverage in the region.
The games of international politics will be crucial to the verdict of this project and only by keeping an eye on the situation and deepening the analysis, will we be able to have a clearer overview of the developments of this adventure.