In his bid to empower Africa to become a prosperous trade continent President Yoweri Museveni informed the Algeria delegation that he stopped the Japanese who wanted to start a motor vehicle assembling plant in Uganda after hearing that the country had the raw materials needed.
Museveni explained that he did this to prove that all these products foreigners hope to produce on the continent, there’s nothing Africans cannot produce if empowered.
“For instance, if you see how many Japanese vehicles we buy, all that prosperity goes to the Japanese but what do they give in return? I have not seen it all this time. We buy more from the Japanese than they buy from us. But now we’re moving away and we are making our own vehicles,” he noted.
“I told Japanese that, your chance is finished. I no longer want assembling because you missed that chance when I was asleep but now we’re going to make our own vehicles,” he added.
The President made the remarks while meeting a delegation from Algeria headed by their Minister of Trade and Export Promotion, Hon. Tayeb Zitouni at State Lodge-Nakasero on Saturday.
In this meeting, President Museveni reassured Algerian investors that Uganda is ready to cooperate with them in boosting trade and investment between the two countries that have had a long-standing relationship since the 1960s.
According to Museveni, now is the time for this historical relationship to turn into an economy and prosperity for the people of both nations.
“Prosperity has two parts, the producer of a good or a service and the other part of a consumer, when I produce and nobody buys, I cannot be prosperous. So really our pockets are instruments of empowerment,” Museveni said.
On the side of medicine, the President told the Algerian delegation that Ugandan bushes have a lot of medicine which their ancestors have been using for a long time in a traditional way and Ugandan scientists have of late made exciting discoveries including Covidex well known for curing Coronavirus.
On his part, Hon. Tayeb the Algerian Minister of Trade and Export Promotion informed President Museveni that Algeria imports milk from other countries worth 700 million US dollars and their hope was to channel that money to Uganda because of its quality fresh milk.
This high-powered Algerian delegation that included investors in Energy, Agricultural processing, Medicine and Pharmaceuticals, Paper recycling and packaging and Irrigation solutions, among others also discussed solutions to potential challenges that would affect trade relations of the two countries.
In his remarks, Hon. Francis Mwebesa the Ugandan Minister for Trade, Industry and Cooperatives revealed that his ministry has taken note that some companies including Brookside, Amos Dairies and Pearl Dairies are ready for dairy export to Algeria and also that the Government of Algeria has offered more market access for beef from Uganda adding that the Ministry of Agriculture has been notified on scaling up production of meat to meet this demand.
Mwebesa also informed the President that a Memorandum of Understanding establishing a joint Business Council between the Uganda National Chamber of Commerce and the Algerian Chamber of Commerce has been signed.
Regarding the tax regime, Mwebesa highlighted that their team agreed that both Uganda and Algeria adopt the guided trade initiative of the African Continental Free Trade (AfCFTA) to enable similar tariff offers that promote trade between Uganda and Algeria in the product line of each other’s interest.
The meeting was also attended by the Ambassador of Algeria to Uganda, H.E. Cherif Oualid and Uganda’s Ambassador to Algeria, H.E Alintuma Nsambu.
Others were; Uganda’s Minister of state for Trade, Hon. Harriet Ntabazi, the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Trade, Ms. Geraldine Ssali and the chairperson of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Exports and Industrial Development (PACEID) Mr. Odrek Rwabwogo.