ODREK RWABWOGO: The ties that bind

This week presidents Cyril Ramaphosa and Yoweri Museveni preside over the first SA-Uganda trade, investment and tourism summit. They will be joined by about 300 delegates from the respective nations’ public and private sectors to exchange views, ideas and information on facilitating and enhancing investment and business.

The summit is timely. Enhanced intra-African trade and co-operation are integral to the success of economic recovery and industrialisation strategies taking place across Africa as the continent emerges from the rubble of the global Covid-19 pandemic. Indeed, the lack of cohesion and integration among African countries has long posed an impediment to economic growth. Barriers to trade include non-harmonised sanitary and phytosanitary requirements, discriminatory technical regulations and overly complex rules of origin.

However, few partnerships hold more promise than that of Uganda and SA. Bilateral relations between are thriving. Already SA is one of the fastest-growing sources of foreign direct investment for Uganda, spanning telecommunications, breweries, finance, poultry, energy and more.

Even in the midst of the pandemic the value of SA’s exports there rose from R1.35bn in 2019 to R1.8bn in 2021. We are keen to return to — and then surpass — the R3.11bn recorded 2018. Uganda’s exports to SA include cotton, gold, fish fillets, tobacco, coffee and fresh flowers. SA’s exports to Uganda include machinery, vehicles, plastics, chemicals, electronics, petroleum, textiles, footwear, aircraft and household goods.

It is precisely these flourishing bilateral relations between two brotherly African nations that the summit seeks to harness to drive growth and prosperity for all. Like many countries post-pandemic, Uganda’s greatest and most important challenge remains the creation of jobs for our youthful population. Critical to this is industrialising our agriculture-dominated economy and developing our light manufacturing capabilities. We therefore see our manufacturing, agriculture and agro-processing, tourism, mining, information technology, health services, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and chemicals sectors as rich with opportunity for SA.

Already both our countries have the necessary frameworks to facilitate our ambitions. We are both members of the Commonwealth — a global network of nations that share the same values, language and legal systems, rendering it 21% cheaper for members to do business with one another. Moreover, the recent establishment of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is an important step for African countries to align standards.

Uganda has ambitious strategies to rapidly grow exports to the outside world. But that does not mean we should neglect our regional markets to do so. On the contrary, enhancing trade and investment links within Africa is a crucial first step for us all to enhance such ties with the prized markets of the developed North. But before we can do even that, we must first identify and solve our existing bottlenecks and impediments to trade.

It is for this reason that Uganda has established the Presidential Advisory Committee on Exports & Industrial Development, which is driving its trade- and exports-led economic recovery. And it is for this reason that we hope this summit will be the first of many, hosting trade, tourism and investment.

The outlook is encouraging. As we were stamping out the last of ebola the World Bank was already reporting Uganda’s return to pre-pandemic growth, noting the strong performance of our services and industrial sectors, buoyant private consumption, and an uptick in private investment.

If we are to maintain this trajectory we must look increasingly outward. But we must look closer to home too, building upon and enhancing the existing ties we already enjoy with our long-standing friends, neighbours, brothers and partners.

• Rwabwogo chairs Uganda’s Presidential Advisory Committee on Exports & Industrial Development.