South Africa and Uganda have ended a two-day Joint Trade Committee (JCT) meeting after agreeing to place various measures to boost and diversify trade, promote inclusive growth and create jobs in their territories, South African Deputy Trade Minister Gratitude Magwanishe said on Tuesday.According to the minister, talks with his Ugandan counterpart Amelia Kyambadde explored new trade, investment and technical cooperation opportunities, as well as removing obstacles to equitable trade.
Following the accord, the two countries have signed a collaboration agreement between the Uganda Industrial Research Institution (UIRI) and the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) of South Africa.
The deal will see Uganda and South Africa cooperating in an agro-sector project on essential oils, the two ministers said.
The project, which has already been piloted in Uganda, will see the establishment of the Essential Oil Out Grower Farmers Programme. This project will see university students being attached to this project to enhance local content creation and human capital development skills.
South Africa and Uganda will also work on projects in the areas of agro-processing, minerals, pharmaceuticals, textiles, footwear and chemicals, the two sides said.
These will be led by South Africa’s Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and Uganda Development Cooperation and the Uganda Development Bank Limited.
The agreement will see the agencies continually engaging on the prospects of lines of credit given to the common projects.
Collaboration between the two countries will see the reviewing of laws around retail distribution value chains, which will be inclusive of shelf life standards.As things stand, the Uganda National Bureau of Standards requires South African retailers trading in dairy products to have a 75% remaining period of shelf life on the products by the time the products are placed on supermarket shelves.
This affects the traders because it escalates the costs of trade and often leads to losses, as there are often delays in transportation.
There will also be collaboration in the areas of small and medium enterprises incubation, skills development and best practice exchanges.
South Africa wants to learn from Uganda in this area, as the Ugandan economy has its foundations in the small enterprise economy.
Uganda’s exports are predominantly produced by small scale enterprises, with about 60% of products traded in the East Africa region produced by that country.
Furthermore, the two countries agreed to negotiate a cooperation agreement on investment.
Formed in 2015 to strengthen bilateral economic relations between the two countries, the next JCT will be held in 2019.

Source: Journal du Cameroun.com

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