Speaking Points for the Minister

SPEECH

FOR

HONOURABLE CADER SAYED HOSSEN

MINISTER OF INDUSTRY, COMMERCE AND CONSUMER PROTECTION

MAURITIUS – UGANDA

BUYERS SELLERS MEETING

OPENING CEREMONY

MONDAY 18 MARCH 2013

IMPERIAL ROYAL HOTEL

KAMPALA

UGANDA

Honourable Amelia Kyambadde, Minister of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives

Mr Amedee Darga, Chairman of Enterprise Mauritius

Mr Evarist Kayondo, Chairman of Kampala City Trade Association

Captains of Industry of Kampala

Delegates from Mauritius

Distinguished Invitees

Ladies and Gentlemen

Good Morning

1. At the very outset, I wish to sincerely thank the Government of Uganda and in particular my colleague Honourable Amelia Kyambadde, Minister of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives for the hospitality extended to my delegation and to me for our short visit to your beautiful country.

2. It is my pleasure and honour to be associated with this Second Buyers Sellers Meeting organised by Enterprise Mauritius in Kampala. The first one was held at this very venue, last year and was graciously opened by my colleague Honourable Amelia Kyambadde as I could not make it to Kampala last year. I wish to sincerely thank the Honourable Minister for her kind honours extended to Mauritius, to Enterprise Mauritius and our entrepreneurs. I have been informed that the first Buyers Sellers Meeting was a success and some Mauritian companies have started doing business with Uganda and several more are in final phases of negotiation.

3. I am also happy to note that since last year there has been an increasing number of high level contacts between our economic operators. Several Mauritian entrepreneurs have re-visited Kampala to finalise business deals and even joint venture collaborations. A delegation of 42 Ugandan businessmen attended the Mauritius International Trade Expo – MAITEX 2012 last July, a team of seven IT Procurement Officers visited Mauritius, on the invitation of Enterprise Mauritius, to look for service providers in the IT fields. Nine (9) Ugandan students have enrolled in Mauritian Universities during the period 2011 /2012 and only last week my colleague, the Minister of Tertiary Education, Science, Research and Technology, Honourable R. Jeetah was in Kampala with a strong delegation of tertiary education institutions to promote the ‘study in Mauritius’ Programme. Furthernore, I am advised that two Mauritian corporates have already invested in Uganda in the Banking and Health sectors. Two more investment projects in the furniture and financial services sectors are planned for this year. These close contacts at the level of Governments, institutions and private operators are creating a new kind of partnership and economic relations between our two countries. A relation based on mutual cooperation and engagement. We are working at the bilateral level as well as under the auspices of COMESA to which Regional Economic Community both Uganda and Mauritius belong.

4. Ladies and Gentlemen

The East Africa Community occupies a strategic position as an emerging economic community for Mauritian investors and businessmen and Uganda . We are already engaged with Kenya and Tanzania and shall be in Rwanda and Ethiopia this year. We are also working to develop trade and investment relations with the two other EAC members, namely Burundi and South Sudan. Uganda is strategically poised to be our stable gateway into the EAC for trade, investment and tourism.

Between our two countries we have a Double Taxation Avoidance Treaty since 2004 and have completed negotiation for an Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement, which awaits signature and ratification. This will create a new platform and dynamism for cross-border trade and investment. At the institutional level, there is in place an MOU between the Ugandan Investment Authority and the Board of Investment of Mauritius to facilitate two-way investments and during this visit Enterprise Mauritius will further strengthen relations with the Kampala City Traders Association-KACITA, for the development of bilateral trade between Mauritius and Uganda.

These measures will strengthen the investors and businessmen confidence and augur well for economic growth of both Mauritius and Uganda. At the level of Governments, we strongly support all such initiatives that help build stronger ties between our economic operators and institutions. I strongly commend and encourage such ties.

5. It is in this spirit, Ladies and Gentlemen that I am leading a group of 20 pioneer entrepreneurs from Mauritius for this two-day Buyers Sellers Meeting in Kampala. This is a platform to talk business and do business.

You will see on display a wide range of products manufactured in Mauritius and you will meet entrepreneurs who are open to all forms of business collaboration, including joint ventures and investment.

I strongly believe in the potential of a stronger Uganda-Mauritius bilateral cooperation. Our present level of trade is still low, but is growing. Last year, Mauritius imported goods worth US$3.1 million from Uganda, representing 0.06% of our total imports and Uganda’s imports from Mauritius were only US$1.2 million representing 0.01% of your total imports. Presently, Mauritius and Uganda are trading in only a few products, namely: cotton, paints hand tools, machine tools and printed materials from Uganda and animal feed, plastics, textile and iron steel from Mauritius.

With stronger economic ties and closer collaboration like this Buyers Sellers Meeting, we can create more trade and more investment to happen between our two countries. Besides, promoting trade, we are also engaging at the Government to Government level to further facilitate trade by putting a mechanism in place to quickly identify any impediments to bilateral trade between our two friendly countries and by immediately remedying any such situation, should it ever arise. To this effect, we must conjugate our efforts to create a seamless trading platform whereby all agencies, institutions and departments engaged in trade develop homogeneous and harmonised systems, processes and procedures in relation to customs clearances, rules of origin criteria, standards and compliance issues. We must be vigilant to ensure that Non-Tariff Barriers are not erected in the trade development process. Such are the pre-requisites that we must assemble.

This morning I had a fruitful meeting with my colleague Mrs Amelia Kyambadde and we have agreed to facilitate trade and investment to grow between Mauritius and Uganda. We are proposing to establish a Uganda- Mauritius Joint Working Committee which will be mandated to identify and remove trade bottlenecks and to promote bilateral trade.

6. Ladies and Gentlemen

The fast globalisation of the world economy compels us to move together in tandem both at the bilateral and the regional levels. As members of COMESA, both Uganda and Mauritius are also engaged in promoting a larger integration through the SADC-COMESA-EAC Tripartite FTA, which is in line with the vision of the African Union to create a Continental Free Trade Area for Africa by 2017.

7. Ladies and Gentlemen

The African Union has come a long way since its establishment in 1963 to emerge as a key player on the international scene and today has a say on all important global issues. It is only befitting that we celebrate with zeal and fanfare the Golden Jubilee of the African Union this year. The time for Africa has come to play its role in this bipolarised world, presently dominated by the current G7 on the one side, and the BRICS economies on the other. According to the IMF, BRICS countries will account for 61% of global growth by 2015, that is, in less than three year’s time. Interestingly, both these blocs are engaged in developing deeper and stronger ties with Africa.

8. Sandwiched between the BRICS and the G7, Africa has come a long way in building sustainable economic growth and development. Africa is already the second fastest growing continent after Asia, with several African countries registering the highest growth rates of recent times. Africa’s total output is expected to reach US$ 2.5 trillion by 2015 and GDP per capita to reach US$ 2,200. With its over 1 billion people in 54 countries, Africa represents a formidable market and a land of opportunities. Exports from Africa are rising sharply , the inflow of FDI reaching record levels. And wealth creation at its historical best.and more significantly as growth is being driven by the manufacturing and services sector compared to its historical dependence on the extractive industries.

9. Ladies and Gentlemen

In this competitive world ‘Nobody owes us a Living’. We have to strive harder and faster to remain in the league of mainstream economies. The SADC-COMESA-EAC Tripartite FTA, in the medium term and the Continental Free Trade Area in the long term offer avenues of growth by promoting industrial diversification, greater democratisation, political stability, entrepreneurship development , human capital development and greater inter and intra member trade and cooperation. Such cooperation is to be built on the following pillars:-

1. Increase in cross-border trade between member states;

2. Creating collaboration on the investment front with more and more joint venture collaborations;

3. Cooperation in capacity building of institutions and private sector development;

4. Irreversible regional integration agenda; and

5. Stronger cooperation at the international level

10. Ladies and Gentlemen

The 2nd Mauritius-Uganda Buyers Sellers Meeting addresses the first two pillars of promoting greater cooperation between our institutions and private sectors to trade more and to collaborate in setting up industries to cater for the huge African market.

I invite the Captains of the Ugandan economy to meet, discuss and seal some deals in trade and investment with their Mauritian counterparts here present.

However, Mauritius can also participate in and share experiences on other activities of interest to Uganda. Mauritian entrepreneurs would be interested in:-

1. the agro sector to build food security through farming, fishing and animal husbanding;

2. the manufacturing sector both for the internal domestic market, for the EAC markets and for the world markets;

3. the services sector, namely: ICT, health, Tertiary education, distribution and logistics and tourism; and

4. the financial services sector to help Ugandan entrepreneurs raise capital through Mauritius, among others.

In the spirit of mutual collaboration, I have invited my colleague, Honourable Amelia Kyambadde to lead a delegation of Ugandan entrepreneurs to explore all business opportunities that Mauritius offers.

Enterprise Mauritius and the Board of Investment will provide you all the logistic support to connect with the Mauritian private sector operators.

10. Honourable Minister, I wish to thank you once again for kindly accepting to grace this opening ceremony of the second Mauritius – Uganda Buyers Sellers Meeting.

I also thank all our invitees and guests for attending this event. I wish you all fruitful and meaningful business dealings.

11. I thank you for your kind attention..