From 10th to 13th August 2015, the 40th meeting of the Executive Committee and the 27th Council of Ministers meeting, two Policy Organs of the Northern Corridor Transit and Transport Coordination Authority, took place at Kempinsiki Hotel Fleuve Congo, in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. The theme of the meetings was: “Towards enhanced Synergies in Regional Trade and Integration”.

During the Policy Organs meetings, the bureau was reconstituted whereby the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) took over the Chairmanship of the Authority for the next two years from the Republic of Burundi; the Vice Chair went to Republic of South Sudan and the Republic of Kenya took over as the 1st Rapporteur while the Republic of Rwanda became 2nd Rapporteur. Uganda and Burundi are members.

The Policy Organs adopted a number of key resolutions on program activities related to transport policy harmonization, advocacy and planning, customs and trade facilitation, infrastructure development and management and private sector investment promotion, Northern Corridor Performance monitoring as well as the budget for the financial year 2015/16 and administrative matters.

NCTTCA Policy Organs launched the upgraded Transport Observatory Portal monitoring the performance of the Corridor, accessible at http://top.ttcanc.org.

The Northern Corridor Policy Organs lauded the efforts and the progress made by Member States in developing and improving regional transport infrastructure projects such as the Standard Gauge Railway and oil pipeline.

They commended the Democratic Republic of Congo’s political will to join the Northern Corridor Integration Projects (NCIP) initiative championed by the Heads of States and its commitment to promote the Standard Gauge Railway as part of its Transport infrastructure programs.

The Policy Organs directed the Northern Corridor Secretariat to expeditiously roll out the Road Side Stations and setting up National Multi-Sectoral Task Forces in collaboration with all the Member States. Additionally, the Secretariat was directed to fast track the signing of the Bilateral Agreement on One Stop Border Posts (OSBP) and the implementation of the Road Map.

In attendance of the 27th Council of Ministers meeting, held on 13th August 2015 in Kinshasa, were representatives of some of the intergovernmental organisations and development partners namely; Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), East African Community (EAC), International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), European Union, Commission Internationale du Basin Congo-Oubangui Sangha (CICOS), United Nations Organisations Stabilization Mission in DRC (MONUSCO) and African Development Bank (AfDB).

The 40th meeting of the Northern Corridor Executive Committee decided that the 41st meeting will take place from 9th to 11th December 2015, in Juba, Republic of South Sudan, while the 27th Council of Ministers resolved also to hold the 28th Council of Ministers in June 2016 in Juba, Republic of South Sudan.