Market access is to everyone’s advantage, says President Museveni

President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has reiterated his position on access to markets, stressing that it is to everyone’s advantage and beneficial to all countries trading together.

“Now after the liberation of Africa, what we need is economic development and transformation. Here we need four factors. Human resource development, infrastructure development, investment and the production of goods and services as well as markets,” he noted.

President Museveni made the remarks on November 28, 2023 during a virtual discussion at the IX International Forum – Primakov Readings held at World Trade Center, Moscow under the theme “Post Globalization Horizons”.

The virtual discussion moderated by Ms. Irina Abramova, the Director of the Institute of African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, had prominent participants who included the former President of South Africa, H.E Thabo Mbeki, Mr. Mikhail Bogdanov, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation and Mr. Ibrahim Kamel, amongothers.

The discussion majorly centred around the cooperation between African countries and other countries outside Africa in various fields.

President Museveni, who took the participants through the journey of the liberation of African countries, pointed out that after the liberation, the most important factor was to cooperate in the areas of education and health.

“This one we are handling among ourselves,” he said, adding that infrastructure like roads, railway and electricity were equally crucial, noting that African countries could cooperate with sister nations like Russia and China in the development of these sectors.

The President also invited investors from Russia to invest in Africa, particularly Uganda.

“We have the internal market of Uganda, the market of East Africa and the one of African Continental Free Trade Area but we also need other markets like the market of India, China and Russia. And Russia also needs markets. If they sell products to us they get the advantage. The Chinese, they sell a lot of products in Africa and the Indians. So, the question of market access is to everybody’s advantage-mutually beneficial to all of us,” he noted.

President Museveni also appealed to developed countries like Russia to cooperate with Uganda to initiate specialised education in areas such as nuclear energy and Artificial Intelligence.

The President’s participation in the virtual discussion follows a request by a Russian delegation that recently paid a visit to Uganda.