East African Business Week

KIGALI, RWANDA - The three member countries of the Economic Community for Great Lakes Region (CEPGL) -Rwanda, Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) - have started talks on easing cross-border movements.
Migration Chiefs from the three countries and the CEPGL Executive Secretary Mr. Herman Tuyaga met in Kigali last week.
The meeting was intended to review security of the bloc's common travel document and its cost in order to boost movements of people and goods within the bloc.
During the two-day meeting, the officials found out that CEPGL residents pay different amounts of money to access the common travel document.
Burundians pay US$5 to access the document while Rwandans pay $10.
DRC residents buy the document at $80, being the one with the highest cost.
In addition, the security of the document remains suspicious because it may easily be duplicated.
CEPGL Executive Secretary Herman Tuyaga said that all of these issues affect movement of residents from one country to another, which negatively influences economic benefits.
The Kigali meeting sought to address these issues.
 In particular, the bloc seeks to enhance security of the shared travel document to avoid duplication and set the common fee across all the three countries.
This is expected to see increased movements of people, goods and services within the bloc of close to 90 million people, according to officials.
Although movement of people, goods and services among the three CEPGL member countries is not smooth yet, some countries, for instance Rwanda, are benefiting from the small number of visitors from the bloc.
During the first three months of 2011, Rwanda received 201,088 visitors accounting for 26% increase compared to 159,977 in the same period 2010, according to government statistics.
Out of these, visitors from DRC and Burundi were more than 74,000, Rwanda Development Board said in its quarterly performance report.
According to the statistics, the main purpose of many visitors from Burundi and DRC to Rwanda was business.  
Analysts believe that there is a huge potential in trade and tourism among the CEPGL countries, which needs to be tapped.
To facilitate trade within the bloc, the three trading partners have plans to open their borders at least 24 hours to allow easy and frequent movement of goods, services and people.
In October last year, the European Union (EU) granted GEPGL countries 45 million Euros to repair roads linking them and improve access on power.
With infrastructure like roads and electricity in place, the three former Belgian colonies, believe they can be able to develop their bloc fast.
Cross boorder movement is s crucial issue in boosting trade and labour movements within the East African Community.
It is, however, hampered by lack of harmonised laws in member states where each country sets its own rate .