DAR ES SALAAM, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- The East African Community (EAC) has taken a significant step toward deepening regional financial integration by expanding its Capital Markets Infrastructure (CMI) to onboard new stakeholders, the regional bloc said in a statement Friday.
The expansion also prepares the CMI for its second phase of implementation, according to the statement.
The EAC Secretariat convened a meeting of the CMI technical working group and executive representatives from regional capital markets institutions from Jan. 28 to 30 in Arusha, northern Tanzania.
Participants included representatives from stock exchanges in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, Tanzania, and Uganda, while the Ethiopian Securities Exchange attended as an observer. Officials from capital markets regulators, central securities depositories, and central bank financial markets departments also joined the discussions.
The CMI is a regional technology platform designed to integrate capital markets across EAC member states by linking stock exchanges and central securities depositories.
The initiative supports the EAC Common Market Protocol, particularly the free movement of capital, by expanding cross-border investment opportunities and improving access to financing for businesses and governments, the statement noted.
The EAC is a regional intergovernmental organization comprising Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. ■
