President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has promised to resolve the issue of unfair competition between foreign and local manufacturers.
The move, according to the President, is aimed at supporting more local producers to be able to supply raw materials in industries and finished products to the market.
The President was Tuesday 25th July 2023 receiving an update on the progress of the resolutions made by the Presidential CEO Forum from the Presidential CEO Forum Chairperson Ms.Barbara Mulwana and her Vice, Mr. Emmanuel Katongole at State House Entebbe.
H.E noted that African economies must undergo transformation from raw-materials producing economies to economies that are based on horizontal and vertical integration ─ from the garden to the table for food products (e.g. coffee) and to finished products for all the other items.
“Why should coffee processing, cotton processing factories, etc., be located in Europe or away from Africa when the raw-materials are here? Minerals like copper, cobalt, lithium, the rare earth, etc., are taken out of Africa to make transformers, cables, turbines, electric batteries, etc., that fetch much more value than the raw-materials we sell,” he said.
Ms. Mulwana highlighted the outcomes as positive progress from the Bi Annual Retreats, such as the adoption of private equity as one of the alternative financing by government, the introduction of the pro borno Trade Legal Desk at the secretariat and how government has reached agreement with logistics companies and Uganda Cargo Consolidators Association on their role in facilitating intra-EAC Trade and agreed that GOU focuses on revamping the Uganda Air Cargo to ease transportation of goods to insecure areas of DRC and South Sudan, through operationalization of the Gulu Logistics hub among others.
During the meeting, Mr. Katongole informed President Museveni that the government has not come out strongly to address the issue of unfair competition, and local manufacturers are being told to accept the status-quo.
In response, His Excellency Museveni pledged that he will work on the matter affirmatively and did acknowledge that private sector should take the leading role in all initiatives to enhance socio-economic transformation of this country.
The briefing is ahead of the fourth coming Biannual Private Sector CEO Forum under the theme, Uganda’s Industrialization agenda: Positioning Uganda as a net source for e-mobility solutions in Africa, scheduled for 2nd to 3rd August, 2023 at the Kiira Motors Plant Facility in Jinja hosted by H.E The President of Uganda.
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