President Yoweri Museveni on Wednesday met a delegation from the Republic of Serbia led by their Minister of Trade Tonislav Momirovic, Milos Adamovic (Assistant Minister), Marco Obradovic (Assistant Minister) and Uganda’s Trade Representative to the Balkans, Mr. Bratislav Stoiljkovic. The President and the delegation discussed the opening of the Trade Center for the Balkans region based in Belgrade.
The meeting, attended by Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja, Martin Mugara the Minister of State for Tourism, Harriet Ntabazi the Minister of State for Trade, the Deputy Attorney General Jackson Kafuzi, David Bahati, Dr Monica Musenero and private sector exporters in the key 13 products, was organized by the Presidential Advisory Committee on Exports and Industrial Development (PACEID) headed by Mr. Odrek Rwabwogo, that brings together all trade representatives, allowing them to network, learn and build strategies with Uganda private sector local input.
According to Rwabwogo, it was agreed that coffee, fruits, tourism, education & communication remain the areas of focus for exports to the Balkans and attraction of equity capital for Ugandan firms.
President Museveni has since 2020 launched concerted efforts to bolster Uganda’s trade links beyond Africa. In December last year. The President was in London to advocate for market for Uganda’s coffee on the European Balkan States market. While in London, Museveni commissioned trade envoys into the Balkan States, tasking the commercial diplomats to find markets for Ugandan products, especially Arabica and Robusta coffee types that the country grows.
He urged investors who he met at Kensington Gardens in London to invest in Uganda, singling out agriculture and ICT sectors as worthwhile ventures the Europeans can undertake in the country known as the Pearl of Africa.
“We have a young population that is ready to engage in production, due to the good climate, and soils, while those yawning for technological development are a huge number, all presenting a fertile ground for investment,” Museveni remarked.
It is during the same breakfast organised by the Presidential Advisory Committee on Exports and Industrial Development together with the Commonwealth Enterprise Council, that Museveni commissioned trade envoys who will represent Uganda in European as well as American markets.
The President commissioned Stoiljkovic to take charge of the Ugandan product in the Balkan States market, a bloc with countries like Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, Serbia, and Greece. Others include Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Slovenia, and Turkey, all with a combined GDP per capita of over US$ 10,000, with a growing coffee market.
In the year 2020/21 the block reportedly consumed coffee worth at least US$ 1 billion amidst the strained economic situation brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Balkan States region is also famous for its highly developed food processing industry and huge investment into the technological sector.
Uganda has been grappling with the challenge of finding more markets for its coffee as it increases local production. Much of the product goes into the European Union Market with a large bulk of it ending up in the UK, German and Italian markets.
According to Rwabwogo, the partnerships with the envoys would create the much-desired confidence in Ugandan products, and make linkages that would grow over time to support the country’s economic agenda.
“These partnerships with the envoys are what we needed to unlock the different potentials in our economy. These would establish business councils in each of these markets, trust generated and reputation developed,” he said.
In London last December, Mr Museveni also commissioned Mark Pursey as Uganda’s trade envoy to the United Kingdom, as well as Codey Lawrence and Olive Kamanzi to lead the search for markets in the American economy with a base in Chicago, Illinois.
Uganda has had a working international trade policy with the US, where at least 6,000 trade products produced within the country are permissible into the USA market on a quota and tax-free basis.
On March 28, 2023, President Museveni met exporters in the 13 product categories that the advisory committee on exports is targeting to raise USD6bn in the next five years. These were coffee, fruits, vegetables, flowers, dairy, beef, sugar, cement, steel, tourism, poultry, fish and grains.
Minister Momirovic delivered an invitation from the President of Serbia, H.E. Aleksander Vucic to President Yoweri Museveni for the to open the Uganda Trade center in June 2023.
