Museveni woos Turkish investors to tap into Uganda’s value addition chain

President Museveni has urged Turkish investors to tap into the immense business opportunities in Uganda and the East African Community.

Museveni was opening the Uganda Turkey Investment Trade, Industry and Tourism summit that kicked off last Thursday at Speke Resort, Munyonyo.

“Uganda has begun to change. We have encouraged families in Rural areas to go into commercial agriculture. There are a lot of opportunities in agro-processing. What Uganda needs right now is value addition and any investor that wants to invest in value addition is highly welcome,” he said.

Uganda hosted the Uganda -Turkey Investment Trade, Industry and Tourism Summit themed ‘’Accelerating Investment, Trade, Industry and Tourism in a Post- Covid Era’’

In his welcoming remarks, Mr Oryem Okello, the State Minister of International Cooperation, said Uganda and Turkey enjoy strong and close bilateral ties with excellent political, social and cultural relations.

‘’He added that Uganda values these relations and it’s committed to deepening them further in all fields, for the mutual benefit and prosperity of our two peoples. The opening of the Turkish International Cooperation Agency (TIKA) offices in Uganda provided both parties with more latitude to expand bilateral cooperation including support in humanitarian and development aid projects’’.

In the last  Financial year (2020/2021), Uganda’s exports to Turkey amounted to US$ 24.61 million while its imports in the same period stood at US$ 62.48 million.

Oryem said Turkey has continued to contribute towards Human Capital Development in Uganda by extending over 50 scholarships annually and various capacity building opportunities enabling our predominantly young population to acquire and develop new skills.

Amb. Stephen Mubiru, Uganda’s outgoing Ambassador to Turkey, his remarks at the Summit said in the area of investment, there are over 70 registered companies in Uganda whose directors are Turkish. These companies are specialise in various sectors such as construction, manufacturing, agriculture, agro-processing and real estate.

In the area of trade, he said there is a tremendous improvement in the last four years. He said the trade volume between Uganda and Turkey has improved from USD 30 million to USD 63 million between 2017 and 2021.

Mubiru said tourism inflows from Turkey to Uganda had improved to over 2,000 arrivals by 2019 up from less than 1,000 arrivals in 2016. The outbreak of Covid-19 in Uganda and Turkey in March 2020 brought all tourism related activities to a halt.