Gen. Jeje Odongo meeting Japan’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Hayashi Yoshimasa yesterday in Tunis. The two exchanged views on how to further bolster the excellent relations for the mutual benefit of both Uganda and Japan.
The Government of Uganda has reiterated its continued partnership and stronger cooperation under the TICAD framework, and re-affirmed commitment to jointly advance the implementation of the TICAD-8 Tunis Declaration.
Speaking at the 8th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD8) in Tunis, Tunisia; Foreign Affairs Minister Gen. Abubakhar Jeje Odongo who represented President Yoweri Museveni said the Summit provides the opportunity to strengthen “our cooperation and enhance the continent’s capacity to deal with several challenges.”
In Uganda, Gen. Jeje Odongo said, “a number of tangible projects, under the TICAD Framework, have been delivered, and others are ongoing implementation.”
This, he said, has significantly contributed to Uganda’s transformation.
“These include in the areas of energy, health, and infrastructure development etc,” he said.
Gen. Jeje Odongo revealed that since 2007, Uganda has focused on sustainable growth, wealth creation and structural change in order to reduce poverty.
“Our approach has been aimed at triggering the key priority areas of the economy such as Agriculture and Agro Processing; Energy development; Value Addition in Mineral Development; Development of critical Infrastructure; and ICT. Foreign Direct Investment, should, therefore be channeled to the aforementioned areas,” Gen. Jeje Odongo said.
Given the Covid-19 negative effect on the continent, Gen. Jeje Odongo says Africa’s financing needs are estimated between USD 285bn-400bn between now and 2025.
Yet, he said, Africa was only allocated USD 33bn by the IMF in Special Drawing Rights (SDRs).
“We urge our Partners to reallocate part of their own SDRs to Africa. This will be vital in bridging our financing needs. The reallocation should be in form of grants, and or, concessional long-term financing and it should consider a country’s specific needs. The lack of equal access to the COVID-19 vaccines was a good lesson for Africa which has now realized the need to build local capacity to develop and manufacture vaccines including fast tracking research and development of therapeutics and diagnostics. What we also seek from our Partners is for pathogens to support our endeavors. We support the call to increase African vaccine manufacturing from the current 1% to at least 60 % by 2040,” Gen. Jeje Odongo said.
According to the Minister; Peace, Security and Stability is the overarching framework for inclusive and sustainable development and socio- economic transformation of Africa. However, he noted, “without a sustainable and predictable way of funding the AU Peace Support Operations, it is likely, we may not be able to preserve the gains made thus far.”
“Terrorism, if not contained, has a tendency of achieving a universal character with un-intended consequences. The UN Security Council (UNSC) has the primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security,” the Minister added, calling for financing the African Union Peace Support Operations through the use of UN Assessed contributions.
Ahead of TICAD’s 30th anniversary next year, Gen. Jeje Odongo pledged: “I wish to conclude by reiterating Uganda’s appreciation for the continued partnership and stronger cooperation under the TICAD framework, and to re-affirm our commitment to jointly advance the implementation of the TICAD-8 Tunis Declaration.”
