Turkish-Uganda cooperation aims to raise exports

The Ugandan capital Kampala on Friday witnessed international business meetings between the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) and the Bosphorus Expo aimed at boosting trade cooperation and increasing the export of goods.

The meetings followed a successful Turkey-Uganda Business Summit jointly hosted by the Council on Foreign Economic Relations of Turkey (DEIK) and the Uganda Investment Authority in Kampala earlier this year.

Many Turkish companies have opened factories and companies in Uganda, creating job opportunities and boosting the local economy.

Emek Eker, the honorary consul of Uganda in Antalya, told reporters in Kampala that Turkey is “promoting a model of encouraging its companies to invest more in developing economies rather than just exporting goods to these countries because this helps the local economy to develop.”

It added that it will coordinate with Turkish investors to boost investment, production and export surplus.

The Turkish Ambassador to Uganda Fikret Karam Alp had recently said that Uganda exports a wide range of products to Turkey, including coffee, tea, vanilla, cocoa beans, processed fruits, fish and handicrafts, noting that its exports to Turkey increased by 418% in 2021.

According to the Uganda Investment Authority, Uganda has a strong and emerging domestic market and is home to about 45 million people.

Those investing in Uganda now have access to the new East African Community market, which is home to 266 million people and has a gross domestic product of $243 billion, the authority said.

The East African Community is a regional intergovernmental organization of seven countries located in the Great Lakes region of East Africa: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and the Republic of the Congo.

The range extends from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean.

For his part, Utko Bengisu, founder of the Bosphorus Exhibition and President of the Global Cooperation for Industries, said that it is time to invest in Uganda and strengthen partnerships, adding that Turkey offers a ready market for Ugandan products.

He announced that the Global Industry Cooperation Forum Summit will be held in Turkey next September to bring together Turkish manufacturers and exporters with potential partners from the entire African continent.

African countries have access to foreign markets under special agreements as they can export more than 6,000 products to the US market under the African Growth and Opportunity Act and can also export all of their products to the European Union without any taxes or quantity caps under the “everything but arms” initiative. (EBA) which abolishes all customs duties and limits the limits of quantities on all imports into the Union from the least developed countries.