KAMPALA – President Museveni has called for complete free trade amongst all African nations as a way of fighting unemployment, the biggest challenge in the continent.
The president was opening the Uganda-Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) joint business forum at Speke Resort, Munyonyo on Saturday 10. The forum was under the theme, “Promoting Bilateral Trade, Investment, and Connectivity for Mutual Peace and Prosperity.
Museveni said that all African countries need to focus on is the quality of goods but not the taxes.
“We need the market of the whole of Africa and avoid taxes at our borders. What we should concentrate on is the quality of goods and services. Internal markets alone are not sufficient to guarantee prosperity,” said the president.
Museveni urged that it is important for nations to facilitate trade among themselves because it creates opportunities for citizens in terms of jobs, income and wealth.
Africa’s trade figures show that we are importing a lot from China, India, Japan and other places. This “means we are supporting the prosperity of these countries and jobs for their children yet ours remain unemployed,” he added.
He said that “Uganda and DRC can, for instance, have a comparative advantage. If something is done better in Congo, we do it there and Uganda buys it, and vice versa. Then we get low-cost but high-quality products.”
