ZANZIBAR VICE PRESIDENT COMMENDS EAC APPROACH FOR GOOD GOVERNANACE

'Transparency, Responsibility, Accountability,
participation and responsiveness are the main
factors that contribute to Good Governance'
.

STONE TOWN (Xinhua) -- Tanzania’s Zanzibar Vice President Seif Ali Iddi on Thursday said that the East African Community (EAC) approach at present targets to mobilize principles of Good Governance and Human Rights to attain objectives of its member states.

Iddi made the remarks while officiating the EAC ministerial meeting held in Zanzibar, the Indian Ocean archipelago, to discuss the draft EAC Protocol ON Good Governance.

He said that the concept of Good governance is also meant to empower member states to utilize properly public resources in order to realize economic development of the people.

"The draft of EAC protocol on Good Governance must maintain better environments for the implementation issues of peace and war against corruption within East African countries," he remarked.

He further noted that EAC Good Governance Protocol is obliged to provide a forum for harmonization and rationalization of Partner States Governance regimes Structures.

"Transparency, Responsibility, Accountability, participation and responsiveness are the main factors that contribute to Good Governance," he noted.

A multi-sectoral meeting of the Partner States’ Ministers responsible for Good Governance, Ethics and Integrity, Foreign Affairs, EAC, Justice and Constitutional Affairs, among others, are meeting in Zanzibar for two days beginning Thursday to review the final draft of EAC Protocol on Good Governance.

The draft is due to be presented to the EAC Council of Ministers next month for consideration.

The draft Protocol is in line with the fundamental principles stipulated in the EAC Treaty Article which emphasizes good governance, including adherence to the rule of law, accountability, transparency, respect for human rights and equal opportunities.

The EAC is a regional intergovernmental organization comprising Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda with its headquarters based in Tanzania’s Arusha.

The bloc boasts a population of 133.5 million with a combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 74.5 billion U. S. dollars.

The regional group has a strategy for a Customs Union, a Common Market, a Monetary Union and a Political Federation.

The vision of EAC is to have a prosperous, secure and politically united East Africa, with the mission to widen and deepen economic, political and cultural integration to improve quality of life of the people of East Africa.