Museveni woos Vietnam to trade with Uganda, Africa
President Museveni has said that Uganda and Vietnam ought to look at deeper and strengthened ties to ensure development of both countries.
“I propose that Vietnam and Uganda, look at co-operation in four areas including technical and scientific co-operation in education, health science (like vaccines), agriculture, trade; investments; and tourism,” Museveni said.
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The president was on Thursday addressing a state dinner attended by the Vietnamese leader Nguyen Xuân Phúc and other dignitaries in Hanoi, the capital of the Southeast Asian country.
Speaking during the dinner, Museveni said he was happy to be the first Ugandan president to visit Vietnam.
He noted that with a population of about 1.3 billion and after 20 years, African leaders have woken up to realise the need for economic integration for the prosperity of their people.
“We now have the East African Community (Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan) with 300 million people, COMESA with the 560 million people and the CFTA (Continental Free Trade Area) with 1.3 billion People. Therefore, the market is now a bit organized or is being organized and integrated. Everybody knows what the Asian Countries have achieved individually and, sometimes, working in groups, such as ASEAN.”
Museveni said Africa and Asia can effectively work together in terms of trade for the benefit of citizens from both continents.
“If the Asian Countries and the African countries, respectively, working closely among themselves, but also engage in the inter-Tri-Continental co-operation, the sky is the limit,” he emphasized.
The president said in furtherance of this partnership, Uganda will in November, 2023 host the Non-Aligned Movement conference that he invited his counterpart, Nguyen Xuân Phúc to “see what is happening in the modern Uganda”.
Trade
The UN COMTRADE estimates that the total trade between Uganda and Vietnam was at US$49.2 (imports) and US$9.34 million (exports) in 2022.
Uganda’s main exports to Vietnam include edible fruits, nuts, peels of citrus fruits, melons coffee while she imports textiles, electronics, and electrical equipment.
Vietnam is the second largest exporter of coffee in the world after Brazil.
