EAC Secretary General meets Ambassador of China H.E Lû Youqing
The Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to the United Republic of Tanzania, and also accredited to the EAC bloc, H.E. Lû Youqing today paid a courtesy call to Amb. Liberat Mfumukeko, the Secretary General of the East African Community. The Secretary General and his guest discussed among other things the possible areas of cooperation and the need to organise investment conferences to China led by the East African Business Council.
Amb. Liberat recognized the significance of China in EAC noting that China is a potentially big partner for the bloc. He acknowledged the contribution made by China in the infrastructure sector, particularly, rails; roads and air transport geared at enhancing trade in the region.
The Secretary General thanked China for her contribution towards the Burundi Dialogue Process and invited China to contribute to other projects and programmes, through the EAC Partnership Fund.
On his part, H.E. Lû Youqing, recognised the remarkable progress that EAC had made. He expressed China’s growing interest in augmenting its cooperation with EAC, specifically the China/EAC/FTA Cooperation, noting that it would positively impact EAC products going to China market especially agricultural products.
The Ambassador re-affirmed China’s commitment to support Integration interconnections i.e. Railway, Airlines and Industrialisation and stressed the need to fast track the signing of the MoU on China/EAC Aviation Cooperation.
He informed the Secretary General that China was finalising the process of donating vehicles to EAC to enhance its capacity. The Chinese envoy further expressed hope that the Secretary General would continue the strong cooperation with China.