The Advisory Committee on Exports and Industrial Development (PACEID) was commissioned by H.E. President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni on March 16th, 2022. PACEID acts as a think tank that advises H.E the President on the strategic and systemic interventions aimed at accelerating exports growth and industrial development for national transformation. PACEID, under the stewardship of Chairman Odrek Rwabwogo, is tasked with improving Uganda’s foreign earnings from the current USD 6BN to USD 12BN and beyond from the prioritized thirteen (13) key products; Coffee, Tea, Fruits & Vegetables, Beef, Dairy, Grains, Sugar, Fish, Banana Flour, Flowers, Tourism, Cement and Steel.  

Coordinated under the Office of the President, PACEID is specifically charged with among others advising H.E the President on practical ways and means of addressing the strategic and operational bottlenecks that impede Uganda from fully harnessing its industrial and export potential.  

As a new approach to export markets, PACEID in partnership with various stakeholders has rolled out a succession of trade, investment and tourism summits hosted in various countries within the East African region, rest of Africa and the world to identify off-takers of the 13 priority exports. So far, PACEID has held five of such successful trade missions; the Uganda-DRC Summit in May 2022 in Goma, the Uganda-South Sudan Summit in Juba in July 2022, the UK-Uganda Business Summit in London, September 2022, the US-UG International Trade Summit & Exhibition in Chicago in December 2022 and the Uganda-South Africa Business Summit in Pretoria in February 2023. These summits feature exhibitions, panel discussions, expert presentations and B2B sessions where participants from the public and private sectors network, share opportunities and identify strategies to position Ugandan products and services internationally and attract potential investors to Uganda.

PACEID has also introduced the concept of Ugandan Trade Representatives (TRs) in targeted markets. TRs are selected for their independent personalities, passion and interest in promoting Uganda’s products and services. To date, the PACEID Committee has appointed five TRs in key export markets; Justin Katoto for the Democratic Republic of Uganda (DRC), Cody Lorance and Olivier Kamanzi (both USA), Mark Pursey for UK, Bratislav Stoiljkovic for the Balkan region (south-east Europe) and Sam Montsi for South Africa. TRs provide technical expertise to help Uganda penetrate new regional and international export markets.

Last month, the exports advisory committee organized a two-days Trade Representatives Forum (TRF) where all relevant public and private sector institutions in the export space gathered to develop a singular view of what Uganda needs to achieve the USD 6BN target. Running under the theme ‘COORDINATION TO DRIVE UGANDA’S EXPORT TARGETS THROUGH TRADE REPRESENTATION’, the TRF was held at State House Entebbe on March 28^th, 2023 and the OPM Conference Centre on March 29^th, 2023 respectively. While at State House- Entebbe, President Museveni expressed his gratitude towards the TRs for their efforts to link Uganda with the big export markets they represent.

After, the TRs had the opportunity to visit key tourism destinations such as Murchison Falls National Park in Masindi and production sites including Tooke in Bushenyi, Ho and Mu Food Technology Company Ltd in Kapeeka, Sseko Designs in Bweyogerere and Zahra Food Industries Limited in Namave Industrial Park.

During the TRF, it was announced that Uganda will be opening a trade center for the Balkans region based in Belgrade, Serbia in June 2023. The center will sell Uganda coffee, bananas, chocolate, grains, and tourism in the region and it will be used as a staging ground for the six Balkan nations of central-southern Europe.

Following this, the Serbian Minister of Internal and Foreign Trade, Hon. Tomislav Momirovic and his delegation which includes Milos Adamovic (Assistant Minister), Marco Obradovic (Assistant Minister) and Uganda’s Trade Representative, Mr. Bratislav Stoiljkovic, will arrive in the country on April 18, 2023, to meet H.E. the President the next day Wednesday, April 19, 2023, from 11am to 3pm at State House Entebbe.

The purpose of the visit is to deliver the invitation of the President of Serbia, H.E. Aleksander Vucic to President Yoweri Museveni for the latter to open the Uganda Trade center in June 2023.

The event will also witness the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the Private Sector Foundation Uganda, United Nations development Programme (UNDP) and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, to operationalize and match the President’s export fund for coffee, fruits & vegetables, dairy, beef, Tourism and other products, to USD30M. The fund is for invoice underwriting for exporters to the new markets. This fund will address the financing bottlenecks that have directly been affecting export performance in priority sectors like agriculture and manufacturing.

H.E. Museveni is also expected to make a special Broadcast on the Tourism sector where Uganda is targeting USD1.5bn new revenue by 2027.