Uganda urges businesses to join East Africa industry conference

Uganda’s government has called on the country’s businesses to attend a major conference on industrial development in East Africa next week.

The 3rd Annual Regional Industrialisation Conference will be held on 18 and 19 August at the Kampala Serena Hotel.

Organisers say it will bring together more than 800 delegates from over 10 countries, including heads of state, investors and development partners.

Sanjay Tanna, Uganda’s minister of trade, industry and cooperatives, made the appeal at a news conference in the capital, Kampala, on Tuesday.

He urged firms to use the event to find new markets at home and across the region.

“I call upon the whole Ugandan business community… to participate in the conference, take advantage of the investment and market access opportunities in the East African Community and play a leading role in Uganda’s industrial transformation,” he said.

According to the trade ministry, manufacturing accounts for about 16.5% of Uganda’s economic output, and the wider industrial sector for 27.4%. Manufactured goods make up 22.5% of the country’s merchandise exports, worth about $1.1bn.

Much of Uganda’s export earnings still come from raw commodities such as coffee and fish, with little processing done at home. The government says it wants more value added locally, and describes industry as central to its long-term goal of building a $500bn economy.

The conference is organised by the Private Sector Foundation Uganda, a business lobby group, alongside the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and the trade ministry. Its theme is “Unlocking Industrial Competitiveness through Innovation and Regional Value Chain Integration”.

Organisers say the programme includes a meeting of East African presidents, an investment forum seeking more than $500m in deals, and an exhibition of local manufacturing.

Tanna also called on business associations, including the Uganda Manufacturers Association and the Uganda National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, to take part.

Uganda currently chairs the East African Community (EAC), a bloc of eight countries. President Yoweri Museveni took over its rotating chairmanship in March for a one-year term, and the government says it wants to use that position to present Uganda as a hub for industrial investment and trade.

The event will also look at how Uganda’s industrial plans fit with a wider EAC industrial policy that runs until 2031.