MPs: Be careful in land talks in EAC

[JuaKali]

Tanzania National Assembly.



Members of Parliament have asked the government to be extra careful when discussing the issue of land in the East African Community (EAC).
The legislators sounded the warning when debating the budget estimates of the East African Cooperation ministry for the 2009/10 financial year, which was tabled in the National Assembly here yesterday.
Mohammed Abdallah (Pangani, CCM) called on the government to be careful when discussing the land issue in the EAC protocol on common market.
He said Tanzania’s land should remain a fundamental asset for the country’s development.
“Do away with those people who try to temper with our land…our land should not be included in the EAC issues because it’s for Tanzanians and no one else,” the MP stressed.
Wawi MP, Hamad Rashid Mohamed called upon the government to survey the available land and give it to Tanzanians.
“Even if we’re not going to use it today, we’ll use it in future…the land issue in the EAC should be taken very seriously because of its importance to
Tanzanians,” the Civic United Front (CUF) lawmaker said.
Hamad also underscored the need for effective use of Kiswahili language in the EAC framework.
“I was surprised yesterday (Thursday), when President Kikwete and Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki delivered their speeches in English while we’ve our own agreed language…this is an area we need to address,” he said.
He also underscored the need to improve democracy in the region for a bright future of the EAC federation.
The Wawi MP also said good governance was another area that needed to be addressed among the EAC member states of Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.
Presenting the views and recommendations of the opposition camp, Kojani lawmaker, Salim Yussuf Mohamed, asked the government to create a mechanism that would be used to financially empower Tanzania’s investors so that they effectively benefit from the proposed EAC common market.
He said such an arrangement would enable Tanzania’s entrepreneurs to use the available opportunities in the region.
The opposition camp also asked the government to prepare a marshal plan that would prepare Tanzanians to enter the EAC common market.
Earlier in his budget, the minister Dr. Diodorus Kamala said the German government had released 14 million Euros for the construction of the EAC headquarters in Arusha.
Construction of the building would begin in September, this year.
He however said that the European Union (EU), had shown interest in financing the Zanzibar International Airport rehabilitation project.
The National Assembly endorsed 14,065,789,000/- for the ministry’s recurrent and development expenditure.




SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN