Mr. Musaazi:
Semantics aside, my points seems to have been lost somewhere.
If you look at the stats that showed a US $20million deficit that Uganda has with USA, you'll notice that the bulk of that deficit is due to imports of 'machinery' & 'equipment'. As for COMESA, our deficit is the neighborhood of US $450million annually. Souldn't we worry about that before bothering with the rest of the world? If other African countries can find a market in Uganda, how come we cannot find a market in those same countries?
(Egypt's COMESAS deficit is monstrous, compared to Uganda, -- but they get $1billion annually from good old USA, as a peace dividend)
Uganda seems to have madeup her mind to persist in exporting low-value 'cash-crops'. It is not America's fault that we have failed to bulidup our manufacturing capacity -- which is what would allow us to add-value to our export by pre-processing them, and to reduce our dependency on foreign manufacturers.
We, Ugandans, have been at the helm for nearly half-a- century but we have yet to get our act together. Let us stop this "kiiso kya mbuzi" attitude: we are responsible for our own fate.
Part of the the capacity comes from man-power planning, which in turn is going to be critically impacted by our education policy. Which factories or service companies rushing out to hire UPE leavers (a great majority do not continue with education for a variety of reasons)? This is not to say that UPE is bad, but rather that it is is a luxury we cannot afford yet. I know that a mercedes is fantastic car and would very much like to have a 500 CLK, but my wallet can only afford a Yugo.
It is the same Mu7 who refuses to negotiate peace with his enemies and would rather spend gobs of our money to 'modernize' the army etc. Who is going to invest in a country where peace is, at best, intermittent, as is power supply, etc.
I am saying that let us first deal with things we can control and then tackle the next task.
Finally, agriculture is good, but I think it is time to re-evaluate our traditional 'cash-crops'. Not long ago, there was famine in Mali. Yet in that same year, Mali's cotton exports went up by at least 5%. None of can eat cotton yet, so it is prudent to invest in growing food. I do know that Mu7 encourages our farmers to grow grains for export. But he cannot seem to control members of his family who are already embroiled in scandals and corruption in this potentially lucrative sector!
Our problems are mostly homegrown, that is the point.
----Original Message Follows----
From: "emmanuel musaazi" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
CC: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: ugnet_: Museveni in America
Date: Wed, 05 Nov 2003 18:01:57 -0500
Mr. Ssemakula, my view on this is that President Museveni is being pragmatic by trying to make the best of a bad situation. By bad situation i mean Uganda being an under developed country with all the baggage that comes with that.
Here is why i have agreed with President Museveni and this will also tie in with Tanzania's decision to pull out of COMESA. Firstly the classification "third world" is a misnomer. For example China, South Korea, India, Brazil, Saudi Arabia and South Africa are classified as third world countries along with Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Lesotho and Kenya. Mean while United States of America has a US$3.3 Billion dollar trade deficit with "third world" China, however "third world" Uganda has (as you stated) a US$20 Million dollar trade deficit with the United States, it is obvious from this example that it would be very difficult in any forum in which third world issues are being discussed, and where Uganda and China sit as equals i.e. "third world" countries, for Uganda's unique situation and economic needs to get catered for, and normally at the end of such meetings communiques are realesed stating what and what has been done for third world countries and what
they stand to benefit. The reality is usually, that the upper echelon of the third world pack benefit.
Secondly in some other third world fora, there is usually more talk than action and this brings me to the Tanzania/COMESA issue. According to President Mkapa, Tanzania pulled out of COMESA because he felt COMESA was too much of a talk shop "We have a propensity for starting and joining all kinds of organisations," he said. "The result was that we were spending more time in conferences than implementing the decisions.". Those are President Mkapa's own words. Although it has been said that the main reason was because the COMESA region is soon to be a trade free zone which means it will be a tarrif-free zone and according to analysts Tanzania was earning a lot from import duties, than exports so...you put 2 and 2 together. Back to your question, the fore mentioned reasons, plus the post-cold war internationa political environment which makes easier for countries to freely associate, calls for a more pragmatic approach to trade relations.
I think President Museveni is aware of this and is trying not to put all Uganda's eggs in one basket. In other wards sometimes it may be in Uganda's interest to have bileteral trade arrangments with some countries, other times it may be in Uganda's interest to be part of a multilateral effort. Other countries have also opted for bileteral arrangements, a case in point is Tanzania. Another good example is OPEC, sometimes some countries decide unilaterally to go above or below their quotas, for their national interest. I have no problem with that, i don't think Uganda should be forced to sink or swim with particular organizations.
As for Agriculture, well it is obviously that, that should be the foundation of a strong economy. If you go through the Presidents speech in America, along with other public speeches he has made on Uganda's economic growth, he has always stressed need to diversify the economy i.e. to move it from strictly agriculture based to manufacturing and ultimately to industrial (or a good mix of everything) and so far he has been making some progress in that direction. The AGOA venture was initiated in that spirit. Overall i think the President is leading Uganda on the right path. But it is said that you can lead a horse to a stream but you can't force to drink. Cheers.
>From: "J Ssemakula" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>CC: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Subject: Re: ugnet_: Museveni in America
>Date: Wed, 05 Nov 2003 21:20:08 +0000
>
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