CRI听力: The Second East African Investment Conference in Nairobi

Anchor: In Africa, leaders from the five East African Community member states have gathered for the organization's 2nd investment conference in Nairobi. This year's event focused on revisiting the resolutions passed in the previous East African investment conference held in Kigali, Rwanda. CRI correspondent in Nairobi Wei Tong reports.

Reporter:

The leaders of the East African Community, or EAC, are attending this conference as the world begins its recovery from the effects of the global financial crisis.(www.hXen.com)

The five countries unanimously agreed that the global economic recession should not only be viewed as a problem but also an opportunity for innovation and trade with emerging economies that have not been hit so hard by the crisis, such as China, India and Indonesia, along with many other Asian nations.

Kenya's Minister for Finance Uhuru Kenyatta outlined a number of steps that would help in the fight to combat the credit crunch as one economic block of the EAC Common Market.

Rwanda's minister for East African Affairs, Madam Monique Mukaruliza is the chairperson of the Council of Ministers of the EAC. She is calling for concerted efforts among member states to form viable economic ties with partners like China and the larger Asian market.

The investment conference was held under the theme of investing in the East African Community to exploit the opportunities brought about by the current challenges.

Mwai Kibaki, President of the Republic of Kenya, who graced the occasion, noted that the global financial crisis is an investment opportunity in which the marginalized African countries should use to benefit themselves.

As a means to combating the financial recess, the east African countries started economical, social and political reforms in their respective governance systems which have been proven to be viable amid this harsh economic time.

This includes adoption of the cross-border protocol to enable people and goods move freely within the member states.
The next meeting will be staged in Uganda in 2009.

Wei Tong, CRI News, Nairobi, Kenya.

For China Now, this is Wei Tong from Nairobi, Kenya.