Arusha. The East African Community (EAC) should be more practical in discharging its duties, a Tanzanian cabinet minister has said.
This, he insisted, would enable the regional organization to overcome operational challenges and speed up implementation of the projects.
"EAC should be more practical and asthmatic in addressing key issues", said the minister for Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation Palamagamba Kabudi.
He added that the fragile nature of the six nation EAC called for consensus approach in decision making among the partner states.
The minister made the appeal in Dar es Salaam this week during a meeting with a high-powered delegation from the EAC secretariat lead by the secretary general Liberat Mfumukeko.
The SG was in Dar es Salaam to brief the minister on the financial situation of the Community and the forthcoming 20th anniversary to be marked later this year.
Prof. Kabudi while reaffirming Tanzania's committment to the EAC called for strengthening of economic diplomacy in the region.
He said although Tanzania was a member of the Southern Africa Development Community (Sadc), recently assuming the role of Chair, it was fully committed to EAC.
Ambassador Mfumukeko, on his part, affirmed the Community was still steady despite some operational challenges.
He briefed the minister on the on-going reforms at the Arusha-based organization and implementation of various integration projects and programmes.
EAC, which came into being with the signing of the Treaty establishing it on November 30th, 1999, will mark 20 years of existence later this year.
The regional bloc has grown from a union of three member countries - Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya - to a six nation union with more intending to join.
Burundi and Rwanda joined in July 2007 followed by South Sudan in August 2016. The pending applications are from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Somalia.
The SG also updated minister Kabudi on the implementation of major infrastructural projects coordinated by the EAC in the region, focused mainly on roads upgrading.
