Uganda President says keen to gain more access into China market

Aug 10, 2018: Uganda is keen to gain further access to China’s market and enhance bilateral cooperation in various areas, Uganda President Yoweri Museveni said.

The president said China had lot of interactions with Uganda, and that the two countries have worked together on various areas including politics, trade, infrastructure and education for many decades. He also stated on the financial and technical aid from China in building dams, airport, motorways and railways which are currently under construction in Uganda.

“We have, therefore, been cooperating with China ever since 1949. In recent times, China supported Africa in fighting the colonial regimes in southern Africa. After that, we are now cooperating with China in infrastructure,” Museveni said.

“They have given us soft loans for building two dams, Karuma and Isimba. They have also given us the soft loans for the Entebbe expressway and for the international airport. One of the big ones which is in the pipeline is the Uganda Standard Gauge Railway,” he added.

Ahead of the China-Africa cooperation forum to be held in Beijing next month, Museveni expressed hopes for China to further open its financial and commodity markets to Uganda.

According to Museveni, China and Uganda are also working to maintain peace-keeping missions in Africa and cooperation under the United Nations (UN) peacekeeping mechanism.