Transport and Communications
The transport and communications programme has the folowing components:
1. Gradual Harmonisation of Transport and Communications Policies
- A transport and communications strategy
- A priority investment plan and a criteria for prioritization of individual projects
- Designing and setting up a management information system
- Capacity building
2. Development of Physical Infrastructure to Enhance Regional Economic Integration
- Mombasa/Nairobi/Addis Ababa Road Corridor Development
- Djibouti-Ethiopia Railway Development
- Up-Grading of Dobi-Galafi Road
- Djibouti-Addis Corrodor Observatory Committee
3. Regional ICT Support Programme
The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Support Programme under the EU funding for Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) covers four regional integration organisations, namely; COMESA, EAC, IOC and IGAD.
The purpose of the programme is to achieve a reduction in the digital divide by removing some of the constraints to the use of information and communications technologies, including those to do with the regulatory environment, poor communications infrastructures, and poor access to information useful to entrepreneurs, and low skills levels.
The main objective of the ICT support programme is to contribute to the overall objectives of the region's integration process, as defined in the ESA RSP and RIP, by providing an effective and efficiently functioning ICT environment whose impact is to reduce the costs of doing business, provide new opportunities for economic activities to take place, especially in the services sectors, and improve the prospects for economic growth and the reduction of poverty. The programme has three major components as follows:
- The development, and monitoring of implementation, of ICT policy guidelines and strategies, and monitoring of e-readiness status.
- High-speed Internet Connectivity provided to certain key regional Stakeholders to further reduce costs of doing business in the region; migration to ASYCUDA++ in selected countries.
- Improved and more efficient access to economic, commercial and policy information of practical use, and the establishment of incubator projects to demonstrate the viability of the Internet, including e-commerce and Improved capacity for entrepreneurs to exploit ICT opportunities and e-commerce techniques.