Online portal to ease travel, business dealings for Ugandans with China

Uganda’s Consul General Ambassador to China, Guangzhou Ms Judyth Nsababera has said a newly unveiled online portal is set to ease travel and business dealings for Ugandans with China.
“The portal is intended to facilitate communication between the consulate and our nationals, encourage participation in official, economic, cultural and social events in our areas of accreditation like investment conferences, business symposium, trade and tourism exhibitions,” she said.

Ms Nsababera made the remarks on Wednesday during the launch of the online portal where Uganda citizens, Business men and Uganda Diaspora visiting or residing in china can register to travel to China at the Ministry of foreign affairs in Kampala.
“China officially opened as of January 8, any other restrictions of Covid testing, quarantine in any of the cities you will be traveling to have been removed, the only requirement you need to travel is a 48 hour PCR test, you don’t need to submit it to the embassy, you just have to show it to the airline then you can board and come to China,” she said.

Ms Nsababera said the portal which was created in collaboration with Mr Stuart Ssemujju, a PHD student at the South China University of China in Guangzhou will enable the consulate get in touch with Uganda nationals and their families in case of an emergency.
“When you get into any kind of problems, if you lose your passport, we can look into the system, see that you had a copy of the passport, we have a copy of it and are able to support you. Some people have expressed that they have got issues when they travel to china in booking hotel rooms, they were being turned away when they presented their Ugandan passports but if you register and you tell us your information that you’re in China for whatever reason and you get into any kind of problem, we are able to look into the system, trace you and support you” she said.

Ms Nsababera urged the business community to carry out background checks on people they were to deal with in China to ensure their legitimacy since its’s not the consulate’s role to follow up or their goods or business dealings.
“You have business people who were coming and need hotel rooms, they are the ones who expressed that these are some of the issues they were having, that when you come to China and you show a Uganda passport, you’re not able to get a hotel room then they had to find somebody to register that hotel room for them” she said.
Ms Nsababera said registration is done by scanning the QR code that can be found on the consulate’s website and social media platforms.
“The consulate assures Ugandans that the information shared on the portal is confidential, will solely be used for the above mentioned purposes and will not be shared with any third parties,” she said.

When contacted, the chairperson Kampala City Traders Association (KACITA) Mr Thaddeus Musoke Nagenda said they were still reviewing the online portal before sharing it with our people who trade in China.
“We are going to analyze and study it so that we see how we can deal with it, we can’t just rush, we have had a lot of issues when dealing with Chinese in the past, and you know we have to communicate something after anaylsing with our team as KACITA. We are having engagements with the Ambassador, we are discussing a lot with her, I think when we finalise we shall write an official document” he said.