The door to trade has opened
GOING TO MARKET PRESIDENT MUSEVENI IS URGING HIS PEOPLE TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF A U.S. INITIATIVE THAT GIVES UGANDA ACCESS TO AMERICAN CONSUMERS AND COULD HELP TRANSFORM THE COUNTRY’S ECONOMY

GETTING TOGETHER Wildlife is the main attraction of Uganda’s tourism sector, which is open for investment

FROM ITS POSITION at the heart of sub-Saharan Africa, Uganda is ideally placed as a base for regional trade and investment. Surrounded by some of Africa’s most economically stable countries, in recent years it has proved a sustainable growth success story, outpacing its neighbors.
This success is due in no small measure to the government of President Yoweri Museveni, the guiding hand behind Uganda’s progress over the last 16 years. Under his leadership, the country has won a well-deserved reputation for macroeconomic stability and low inflation, and has worked hard to win the confidence of the international community and foreign investors. This has been achieved through sound economic management and a steady program of structural reforms, backed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

It is a remarkable comeback from the dark decade of the 1970s when state-sponsored violence made the military dictatorship of Idi Amin notorious. Guerrilla war and human rights abuses continued into the 1980s under Amin’s successor Milton Obote and until 1986 when Mr. Museveni finally seized power and government was subsequently taken over by the National Resistance Movement (NRM).
Uganda has successfully emerged from economic chaos and collapse since then and the social, political and economic transformation continues today. Strong central government and the creation of democratic institutions have created a politically stable society. Asked today what have been the greatest achievements of the last 16 years, President Museveni puts security of person and property at the top of the list. Uganda’s human rights record has been substantially improved. The nationalization of much of the Ugandan economy in the 1960s and 70s has been reversed and companies have been returned to the private sector. The Asian-Ugandan entrepreneurs that Amin expelled from the country have been encouraged to return.
Nevertheless, Uganda remains one of the poorest countries in the world, with 85 percent of its population struggling to make a living from the land. The economy is heavily dependent on a single crop–coffee–and therefore vulnerable to international price fluctuations.

International support remains vital, but President Museveni knows that the longterm solution to the poverty in which his people are trapped lies not in aid but in trade. The economy needs to be diversified, levels of productivity need to be raised and and exports increased. Most important of all, Uganda needs access to major foreign markets through free trade.
The U.S has opened the door to its own vast market with the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), signed into law by President Clinton a couple of years ago. The Act removes tariffs and quotas for sub-Saharan African goods.

YOWERI MUSEVENI President of Uganda

President Museveni has given AGOA his personal backing. He was the first African president to endorse the Act and plays an active role in promoting its potential benefits for Uganda, both at home and abroad.
“We are on the threshold of a strategic breakthrough,” he says. “We have carried out all the reforms and what is most important for us is market access. Now we have it. In five years’ time, Uganda will be a totally different story–once we can take advantage of what is in front of us.”
He acknowledges that it will be “a struggle” and that there are still much to be done.High on the agenda is the need to attract outside investment.

Uganda has a subsistence economy dominated by agriculture. While it is rich in natural resources, it lacks the funds, machinery, know-how and infrastructure to take full advantage of opportunities like AGOA on its own. The President is urging American companies to invest in the country.
“The investment climate is good because we have solved the problems of convertibility of currency and inflation, and interest rates have now come down,” he says. “We have potential that is not yet realized, we want U.S. companies to come and co-invest with us so that we can provide the quality of goods they desire.
“They should first invest in textiles and garments because of our high-quality cotton. We have footwear and very good leather. Wool products are plentiful here. Then there is food, especially fruit concentrates, and freshwater fish. There is coffee–we are one of the biggest producers of coffee in the world–tea and tobacco. All of these things are available.”

The President is personally leading the exports campaign, recently heading a 50-strong trade mission seeking U.S. partnerships and investments.
“The next stage is to link up into actual business,” he says. “We want to reach the American consumer and you can only get to the consumer through the established distribution retail companies. We are getting in touch with them so that they can tell us what they want. Their customers are used to certain products. Our first task is to produce what they are used to and to assure them that we can do it. Later, we may want to convert them to products they don’t yet know.”
At a White House meeting with President Bush, Mr. Museveni said moves to put an extra $10 billion into development assistance in Africa should be used to not just to reinforce good governance but to encourage “passionate trade” with the U.S.
He called for an end to all protectionism, which he said distorts trade and impairs sustainable growth in Africa.