Kagame and Museveni appear to have delivered a day after Albright died.
One also cannot ignore the fact that a Democrat is in power. A Democrat who is at war with Putin and trying to push Russian mercenaries out of Central Africa.
What does this new arrangement mean for a country like Kenya?
Ramaphosa said recently that he stands with Putin, will South Africa or SADC still do business with this new Congo?
OBOR appears to be very much on track. Raila might complete the SGR from Mombasa to Kisumu and on to Kinshasa.
[SIZE=7]DRC finally joins EAC next week, three years after formal application[/SIZE]
Tuesday March 22 2022
The DRC will officially join the six-nation EAC Tuesday next week, adding its more than 90 million market population to the regional trading bloc.
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By CONSTANT MUNDA
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IN SUMMARY
[ul]
[li]The EAC Secretary-General Dr Peter Mathuki confirmed that the populous country will be admitted into the bloc on March 29 after approval by Heads of State Summit, nearly three years after making a formal application in June 2019.[/li][li]The mineral-rich country already has established trade ties with most of the EAC member states through bilateral deals and at multilateral level where it is affiliated to Southern African Development Community (SADC) where Tanzania is a member.[/li][/ul]
The Democratic Republic of Congo will officially join the six-nation East Africa Community (EAC) Tuesday next week, adding its more than 90 million market population to the regional trading bloc.
The EAC Secretary-General Dr Peter Mathuki confirmed that the populous country will be admitted into the bloc on March 29 after approval by Heads of State Summit, nearly three years after making a formal application in June 2019.
“We are in receipt of a letter dated 18th March from the chairperson of the Council of Ministers informing the Secretariat of the convening of an extraordinary summit on the admission of the DRC into the EAC on 29th, March 2022,” said Dr Mathuki in a letter to ministers in charge of the EAC docket in member states.
“The summit will be preceded by the 48th Extraordinary meeting of the Council of Ministers on Friday 25th March. The proposed agenda for the summit will be the consideration of the report of the council on the admission of DRC into the EAC.”
The mineral-rich country already has established trade ties with most of the EAC member states through bilateral deals and at multilateral level where it is affiliated to Southern African Development Community (SADC) where Tanzania is a member.
DRC is already a key African market for Kenyan firms with the latest official annual data showing exports earnings from DRC amounted to Sh14.3 billion in 2020 — only dwarfed by Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Egypt and South Sudan.
Some of the key exports to DRC are animal and vegetable fats and oils, pharmaceutical products, tobacco, iron and steel, leather and footwear, vegetables, fruits, nuts, plastics as well as paper and paperboard.
“Its rich appetite for agricultural produce shall enable local manufacturers to expand their volume of exports to the country,” Mr Mucai Kunyiha, the chairman of the Kenya Association of Manufacturers, told the Business Daily earlier this month.
“With enhanced access to the DRC market, the volume of these exports is expected to rise in the near term, and pave way for more products.”
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