John Mulimba
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has assured Ugandans and the world of how ready the country is ahead of the Dubai 2020 Expo which starts today, October 1, 2021 to March 30, 2022.
“Our pavilion has already been underwritten by the Dubai administration,” John Mulimba, the State Minister in Charge of Regional Cooperation said, looking at ICT and National Guidance Minister, Chris Baryomunsi and Harriet Ntabazi, the State Minister of Trade, Industries and Cooperatives.
According to Mulimba, the expo is strategic for Uganda to attend.
“Dubai being a hub and a business centre is a very strategic expo for us (Uganda) to attend. Uganda will be attending and we hope to benefit,” Mulimba said Thursday while addressing the media at the Foreign Affairs headquarters in Kampala.
Uganda is looking to tap opportunities in the areas of trade, investment, commerce, tourism, agriculture, ICT and manufacturing among others from the expo which is to be attended by 189 other countries.
“People used to think that when you talk about Uganda, Uganda is some small country somewhere, geographical location not known, what it stands for is not there but I think this presents a very good opportunity for us to go and present ourselves,” Mulimba noted, adding, “We shall also be addressing challenges of climate change and other climate change strategic observations.”
Mulimba says that there is an opportunity to hold meetings on the sidelines of the expo.
“Side meetings are going to provide a platform for discussion. So the technical minds who are going to be in these side meetings will help us remunerate the effects of the sanctioning world. Most importantly it will help us to expose and expound on our visibility. Other than the Middle East or its neighbors, we have a huge international community that will be participating in this expo and will want to know what Uganda stands for in terms of its political standing. As a country, it will help us to enhance our political visibility,” he said.
Outside of the above, Mulimba says that the expo will improve Uganda’s public diplomacy and image as well as economic and commercial diplomacy.
“The expo will help us improve public diplomacy and image not only in the Arab world but also in the wider international community. Uganda will be the first to be celebrated at the Exhibition Arena. Uganda’s economic and commercial diplomacy will also be boosted. As a ministry, we are prioritizing economic and commercial diplomacy in which we want to tell the world about what we have, what we produce, what we sell,” he said, adding that meetings with a more technologically advanced world will better Uganda’s manufacturing agenda and general development agenda.
Mulimba added: “The expo will give us an opportunity to demonstrate that Uganda has come thus far. For the international world who knew Uganda 10, 20, 30 years or 40 years ago, this is an opportunity for Uganda to showcase what we are now doing. We are going to see Uganda’s powdered milk on the market, matooke flour, processed chips made out of bogoya, tomatoes, pineapples, mukene, pumpkin seeds. The international world has already heard about these. Probably this is the chance for Uganda to show the international world how far we have come along the path of development.”
Mulimba says that President Yoweri Museveni is expected to attend the Uganda National Day on October 3, 2021 at the Dubai Exhibition Area.
Great opportunity.