The Ambassador of Uganda to South Sudan Brig. Gen Ronnie Balya has called on Ugandans to embrace new market opportunities in South Sudan.
Speaking during the South Sudan-Uganda Business Forum in Beijing Hotel, in the capital of Juba on Tuesday, the former Director General of Internal Security Organization (ISO) noted that currently, South Sudan is safe for any Ugandan willing to do business.
He added that South Sudan is one of Uganda’s biggest trading partners with trade volumes close to 400 million dollars. And one of the targets of the ongoing Business Forum is to increase these trade volumes to 1 billion dollars annually.
“The Republic of Uganda and Republic of South Sudan have strong historical ties, vibrant diplomatic relations and trade between the sister countries are flourishing. Both countries are members of the East African Community, the IGAD and the Nile basin initiative promoting regional integrations and cooperation,” Brig Balya said.
He also noted that before the war in 2013, Uganda’s exports to South Sudan were approaching USD1billion and now that peace has returned to South Sudan, Ugandans should embrace the current opportunities.
“Peace is assured in South Sudan. Now I encourage Ugandans to embrace these fertile opportunities to expand trade and investment and focus more on joint venture business.”
The Chief Executive Officer of the Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU) Steven Asiimwe, urged Ugandans willing to embrace opportunities in South Sudan to use business consortiums to avoid challenges.
“We are here to do business and lobby for our business associations, we came with many people in different fields of business such as banking, clearing and forwarding, consultants, and banks, ICT in order to tap into opportunities. Of course, there are those Ugandans who have been doing business in South Sudan but very little is known about doing business in South Sudan,” he said.
Asiimwe added that PSFU is to mobilize business people in Uganda to embrace the new opportunities traced in South Sudan and also to remove the fear that was brought by the war where many Ugandans who were doing business in South Sudan suffered huge losses.
“PSFU has 12 sectors and 300 business associations that can successively tap into opportunities in South Sudan. Right now, we are close to over USD400millon of Uganda’s exports to South Sudan potentially it’s over a billion and we think that can grow, so by coming here we have come to learn and also to remove fear but also to see which opportunities are available for us to take advantage of.”
Meanwhile, the South Sudan-Uganda Business Forum is aimed at; establishing a South Sudan-Uganda joint business Forum, raising awareness about investment and business opportunities in both countries, boosting bilateral trade and investment flow and showcasing the Uganda and South Sudan private sectors through a business expo.
Over 100 Uganda companies have travelled to Juba to pitch for business.
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