Burundi In EAC Integration:the Opportunities And Challenges

"Two are better than one" is an African Proverb.Three countries in East Africa have decided to form a community and Burundi with Rwanda have acceded to that Community some years after his creation. This study wants to analyze what are the opportunities and challenges of Burundi in EAC integration. East African Community is a regional intergovernmental organization of the Republics of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, the United Republic of Tanzania, and the Republic of Uganda with its headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania.The Treaty for establishment of the East African Community was signed on30November1999and entered into force on7July2000following its ratification by the original three Partner States (Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda). The Republic of Burundi and the Republic of Rwanda acceded to the EAC Treaty on18June2007and became full Members of the Community with effect from1July2007.The East African Community is a potential precursor to the establishment of the East African Federation, a proposal federation of its five members into a single State. In2010, the EAC launched its own common market for goods, labor and capital within the region, with the goal of creating a common currency and eventually a full political federation. In2013, a protocol was signed outlining their plans for launching a monetary union within10years.Burundi has a lot of opportunities to be integrated into EAC. The opportunities are in the different sectors:economic, social, energy, political and educational. Burundi’s EAC membership opens opportunities for the country’s goods and services trade. Different rates are applied for raw materials (0%), intermediate products (10%) and finished goods (25%), the latter percentage is fixed as the maximum. The EAC agreement can also create a push for economic and structural reforms and strengthen political and regional stability. Many opportunities lie ahead in the landscape of the EAC and Burundi will benefit especially in joint programs of the Community development but also in terms of reducing transactions costs and harmonization of economic and social policies. Burundi has a number of benefits that could put him in favorable position in the Community notably:Burundi is a producer of agricultural products which could further increase the quantity for export (Coffee, Tea, Sugar, Rice, Palm oil, Fruits and Vegetables enough demanded in the region) and the fishing in the Lake Tanganyika which remains a growth area. Burundi has also natural resources and a large untapped potential tourism which could create some revenues.The geographic position of Burundi is strategic because it is the link between EAC and the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and that position makes the country a hub of trade in goods and services between the EAC and the DRC, also a pole of development around Lake Tanganyika.Burundi’s admission into EAC in July2007brings with it important commitments to harmonize tax legislation with the wider region and standardize tariffs and commercial arbitration legislation. The year2010saw the establishment of the Burundi Investment Promotion which claims to have cut the number of procedures required to start a business from nine to two, subsequently reducing the necessary time from32days to2. At least partly as a result of these initiatives, the Gross domestic Product has increase each year for the past few years:3,5%in2009,3,8%in2010,4,2%in2011, and a forecast4,8%and6%for2012and2013respectively. Foreign direct investment, increased year-on-year between2009and2010, and2010and2011.Unless Burundi has opportunities to be integrated in EAC, some challenges which Burundi is facing into EAC integration are still here. Burundi, a landlocked country, is the only French-Speaking among EAC member States, the problem of infrastructure development including Railways, Ports and Harbours, Roads, Civil Aviation and energy. Also, the final stage of EAC which is Political Federation could be a challenge for Burundi in the sense of losing the national sovereignty, the cultural and territorial norms and values, the social cohesion and national identity.