Turkish, Ugandan traders agree to boost cooperation, exports at meeting

By Hamza Kyeyune

KAMPALA, Uganda (AA) - The Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) and the Bosphorus Expo held the International Business-to-Business meetings Friday in Kampala to strengthen trade cooperation and boost goods exportation.

The meetings came on the heels of a successful Türkiye-Uganda business summit that was co-hosted by the Foreign Economic Relations Board of Turkiye (DEIK) and the Uganda Investments Authority in Kampala earlier this year.

Several Turkish companies have opened manufacturing plants and businesses in Uganda, creating jobs and boosting the local economy.

“Türkiye 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,” Emek Basak Eker, Uganda's Honorary Consul to Antalya told news reporters in Kampala.

She said she would coordinate with Turkish investors to boost investment, production and export surplus.

Uganda exports a wide variety of flagship products to Turkiye, including coffee, tea, vanilla, cocoa beans, processed fruits, fish and handicrafts, and have increased exports 418% in 2021, Türkiye's Ambassador to Uganda Fikret Kerem Alp said recently.

Uganda has a growing robust domestic market of nearly 45 million people and those who invest in Uganda now have access to the new East African Community (EAC) market hosting 266 million people and a GDP of $243 billion, according to the Uganda Investment Authority.

The EAC stretches from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean.

Utuk Bengisu, the founder of Bosphorus Expo and chairman of the World Cooperation Industries Forum said that the time to invest in Uganda and enhance partnerships is now, adding that Türkiye offers a ready market for Ugandan products.

He announced that a World Cooperation Industries Forum (WCI) to bring Turkish manufacturers and exporters together with potential partners from the entire African continent will be held in Türkiye in September.

African countries enjoy access to external markets under special agreements with more than 6,000 products eligible for US markets under the Africa Growth and Opportunities Act, and quota-free and tax-free access to all products into the European Union under the EBA scheme, or everything else except arms, which removes tariffs and quotas on imports to the bloc from the least developed nations.