‘A lot more needs to be done to promote Uganda in China’

What should Ugandans expect from China?
It is important to look at what miracles China has gone through to become the global second biggest economy. Yet this is not what it was in the 70s when they suffered hunger. Now they produce enough. So which lessons can we draw from China? So to speak, Chinese are disciplined and because of this, they have become a global economic power.

Secondly what Ugandans can learn from Chinese is their saving culture. Chinese save over 50 per cent of the money they earn which they use as reinvestment fund. This saving culture of Ugandans is still poor; when people get money, they think about spending it on luxuries.
China has also been stable since the Second World War. So within those decades of peace, China has made progress because of stability. This is a lesson Uganda can emulate. We have been stable for about 10 years ever since the guns went silent in 2006. Uganda should continue with this kind of stability because this will take us there in the next 10 to 20 years.

For decades, Chinese have established projects which benefit the community, such as infrastructure which is well built. So what happens in Uganda?
Everyone wants to vet a project and be part of the discussion.

How have you disseminated these lessons back to Uganda as a mission?
We have started partnering with the media to disseminate such lessons by writing articles. We cannot completely replicate the entire system that the Chinese have used but we can draw lessons. Government has earmarked funds to 11 missions for commercial diplomacy of which Beijing is among the beneficiaries with a lion’s share because of its economic growth. Secondly, Uganda is mostly trading with China.

What is your strategy to attract Chinese business and investments to Uganda?
There a number of Chinese companies which want to come to Uganda and invest in commercial agriculture. When such investors come to the country, they will motivate Ugandans to get involved in large scale farming. They will provide market to the produce and processing industries established which will then create more jobs. The products produced locally will be exported and the country will earn revenue. In so doing, this is transferring technology.
With the little resources that we had before we have tried to do our best and we believe with the availability of the resources, we intend to do more such as attracting trade missions and tourists to come to Uganda.

In terms of tourism, this has not been good. Chinese have heard stories of how Africa is a Dark Continent so few Chinese know about the continent more so Uganda as a country. You can imagine the first Chinese person who came to Uganda was into business. With tourism, the big numbers go to UK and US. If Uganda gets at least 1 million tourists from the Chinese population of 1.3 billion people, this will have a big impact on our economy. So there is a gap which we need to fill urgently through investing money in promoting our tourism attractions to Chinese. We have been seeing more of Chinese goods coming to Uganda than Ugandan goods going to China. Uganda as an agricultural country trading with China has enormous opportunities. Avocadoes, pineapples and other fruits are highly demanded. However, our challenge as Uganda is to meet the Chinese appetite for the agricultural commodities. We need to streamline supply to this market.

What are the other opportunities that Ugandans can look out for in China?
There are a lot of opportunities in China especially for youth. Those who go there should get involved in gainful employment and not drugs or else they will be sentenced to death because the laws are very stringent. Let people come to China to do legitimate trade. When travelling, don’t carry someone’s merchandise because many have been caught innocently in the name of helping out. Traders should look at the technology in China, learn it and bring the expertise back home. We have been seeing many Ugandans go to Guangzhou province for import textiles. Shandong Province is the place Ugandans should not miss out because it has mechanised technology for agriculture.

Locally, there have been complaints about Chinese investors who are involved in petty trade which would otherwise be done by Ugandans. As a mission, what role have you played to stop this?
The civil service in Uganda was one of the best in the 70s but this has gradually been lost because of the political and economic turmoil we went through. But I know Uganda has laws followed to make sure that foreigners go through a process to stay here or work. In my view, despite the presence of all these laws there is a challenge at the level of implementation.

Someone is not doing their job well. These people are supposed to be repatriated after projects are completed. As a mission, we give the visas, we don’t deny them because they buy them and the country earns. But the visas have expiry dates. Because our system is porous, these people vanish into the population and start doing such petty jobs. As a mission, we investigate those who apply for the visas looking at their qualifications. Police and immigration should take on these issues. But again I don’t blame them because the ratio of the police to the population is way too much compared to the international recommendation of police officer for every 500 people. In Uganda, we have 20,000 police to handle a population of 35 million people. We must improve our systems.