{"id":1363659,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1363659/?format=json","text_counter":260,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Manyatta, UDA","speaker_title":"Hon. Gitonga Mukunji","speaker":null,"content":"The East Africa Community, which boasts of almost 280 million people, is a market that we have to really maximise on through inter-country trade amongst the citizens of our member States. Trade within the region right now stands at about US$10 billion – which, in my opinion, is very low considering the potential that a market of 280 million people has. The Committee has delved a lot into the challenges of inter-State trading. I think one of the issues is infrastructure connectivity. I believe many Members will agree with me that we need to work on our transport infrastructure, and more so the rail and road systems."}