Live updates: Museveni addressing Parliament

04:14pm: The president of Uganda, H.E Yoweri Kaguta Museveni will be officially opening the the forth meeting of the East African legislative assembly plenary this afternoon.

04:20 pm: EALA speaker, Margeret ZZiwa welcomes the president of Uganda

Challenges include

--The concstruction of the standard guage railway and the effort made to reduce congenstion in Mombasa and Dar el salaam,

--The activities of both the committee and those of EALA has already put 7 key bills and Your excellency has signed 5 of them.

Some of the major concerns

--- Appreciate the uplift at SorOti flying school

--- we salute the government of Uganda we appreciate the effort you put to facelift the Soroti flying school.

--- EADB it is very vibrant and plays a role in development of EA.

Just like Lake Victoria fisheries, the summit should help in

The EALa wants to term this year as year of deliverables.

During this plenary we intend to debate 3 bills including the EAST africa intergartaion bill

We call upon you sir to support EALA and wish to assure you of the assembly's commitment and support.

We congratulate the president on the stable economic growth and the recent deployment of UPDF in Juba.

EALA speaker invited the president.

04:41 pm: The president welcomed member of EALA and other members present

He thanked the members of EALA for publicising the integrations.

04:45pm: He said that he will not address myself on the rationale of EA integration but I would rather

first we address the known tariff barrier... the weigh bridges were reduced to one in each country

04:48 pm: Bonds are subversive to our economy. Business people can now clear goods through Uganda Revenue authority. It is no longer necessary for traders to travel to Mombasa. Traders can now use e_payment technology.

He said people travel freely using computerised ids. The fact that Uganda has not yet completed the id registry is still an issue. Once EA will be done with computerised IDs there will be no need to disturb people with passports.

04:51 pm: In East Africa if you have travelled it is like you have committed a crime. That is not good we cant develop like .

The single tourism visa will start on 1st Feb. 2014. this cost only US dollar100. the 100 will be shared by all countries. The country who issues the documents gets USD10 and the USD90 is shared equally among the East African countries. This will increase the number of tourists in the regions.

05:03pm: We have discussed with other members to see whether we can give the same transport facilities among all the countries in the block. President Kikwete is following up the issue on the central corridor, Uganda is working on the plan to build a railway guage. Railway transport will reduce the cost and more profit for the traders. The number of days taken from Dar to Lake victoria are 35.

What is the cost of transporting goods from Mombasa to Uganda? I said it is too high. If you want to develop you should stop comparing with pygmies. You compare with people who are better that you. The cost of transporting a 40ft container in Uganda is double that cost of the same container from Shagai to Bejing yet the distance is less.

05:09 pm: Integration is a sign of total economic and social growth. however the violence sets us back. The conflicts are fuelled by some ideological mistakes. The Banyakore don't help me to be prosperous because they don't buy my milk, however it is the people in Kamapala who help because they buy our products. So are the people in Mwanza, Kenya, and Congo when it is peaceful. So I dont understand when someone comes out to brag about "we Banyakore". Uganda is their source of propriety, EA is their source of prosperity. Organise seminars and dissect this rubbish so called sectarian politics. Because all this conflicts are based on those ideological mistakes. This thing must be sorted ideologically.

05:15 pm: Even before the the money economy there was barter trade, people would come from Zanzibar all the way for barter trade. So if somebody is benefiting you how can you say he is a problem and your tribes men who are not helping you are the good ones. Even the talk of tribes in the news papers in the political mobilisation is not correct and you can challenge this through seminars.

05:19 pm: The other problem is lack of discipline by political players. Why should one rape women when fighting wars? Why do you loot? Looting is a crime against humanity,

05:21 pm: The third problem also is that foreigners also encourage these people. You should tell them to go away, because they have nothing to add.

05:22 pm: The weak state structures. Am happy to note that in EA we have got strong structures. You cannot let people do things the way they want. The structures of the East African community exit and we cannot allow such to happen.

05:24 pm: I congratulate EA on achievement of the monetary union that we agreed on in the last summit. This means that this will lower the cost of doing business.

On the issue of Soroti flying school, it is true by we have bought new planes. However some civil servants have been sabotaging this by underpaying the pilot trainers. If EA wants to take over the Flying school it is welcome.

Thank you.