The immigration chiefs from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda have backed the concept of having a common tourist visa for their regional integration bloc, according to reports reaching Dar es Salaam on Monday.

The concept was floated to their weekend meeting in Arusha of northern Tanzania and is now expected to be tabled before meetings by foreign ministers and finance ministers of the three states that combine to form the East African Community (EAC).

Under the concept, regional tourist visas can be issued from embassies of any of the three EAC member states and will be honored in all three member states.

The common tourist visa is expected to enable foreign tourists skip inconvenience of collecting visas from all the three EAC member states separately so as to tour the region.

A common tourist visa is deemed another step toward regional integration that has so far launched a customs union with a common market and a unified currency scheme to follow through.

Source: Xinhua