EAST AFRICAN COOPERATION – MANY POSSIBILITIES

At another meeting in London on November 20, under the auspices of the Royal African Society, the three East African High Commissioners in London talked about East African cooperation. One speaker said that a possible future benefit of such cooperation might be the appointment of only one High Commissioner for the three countries!

Tanzania’s High Commissioner Dr. Abdul-Kader Shareef put some flesh on the bones of the proposed cooperation arrangements now being actively discussed at the headquarters office in Arusha by describing some of the possibilities – an easing of previously restricted social interaction across borders; common strategies on foreign debt; the creation of a critical mass in terms of the market; cooperation on environmental issues – the Serengeti and the Maasai Mara were one continuous ecosystem; the pooling of telecommunications facilities; stemming the loss of professionals; the assembly of the huge capital requirements if energy resources were to be properly developed; and the advantage of a unified approach when dealing with the issue of instability in neighbouring countries.

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