VP Prof. Bukenya discusses with Chinese Ambassador to Uganda as Mr. Wang Thu Pei listens.

The Vice President Prof. Gilbert Bukenya has urged Ugandan business entities doing business in China to learn the Chinese language so that they can effectively trade by themselves without need of hiring interpreters.

Prof. Bukenya said that since China is the new emerging trading partner with Africa and an exemplary model of development, it is prudent that Uganda’s education curricular incorporates Chinese given their expertise in a number of fields like technology, health, value addition machinery, agricultural research, among other to solve own problems that have been similar to those of China in the recent past.

Speaking during the launching of the first three day Tianjin Trade Fair in Africa at Hotel Africana in Kampala, the Vice President said that bilateral cooperation between Uganda and China has helped Ugandans to acquire skills that have translated into self-employment small scale enterprises. He hastened that this is changing the country’s economy from being agriculture based to an industrial one.

The Vice President commended the China government for injecting 251 million dollars into Uganda’s economy in foreign direct investments and also extending zero tariffs on Ugandan exports to China thereby boosting the trade relations between the two countries.

He said that the continued bilateral relations with the Chinese government will help Africa and Uganda in particular, to stop the custom of reliance on aid from multinational companies that come with serious ties.

Prof. Bukenya called for more cooperation in science and technology transfer, sports, security systems, agriculture and industrial modernization.

The Chinese ambassador to Uganda, Sun Heping said that China attaches great importance to the self reliance of Africa through trading with the continent, poverty eradication, climate change, agriculture among others which were agreed upon in the November protocol in Egypt last year.

Heping added that Uganda is one of the biggest beneficiaries of grants from his government as well as offering training scholarships to Ugandans in a number of fields.   

Wang Thu Pei, Director of Tianjin Commission of Commerce of the people’s republic of China said that his company’s expertise has enabled start heavy machinery in 21 countries in both the developed and developing countries.  

The fair is being organised by Northern International Group and co-sponsored by Tianjin Commission of Commerce and Tianjin Sate owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.