KAMPALA, UGANDA – Small and medium Ugandan exporters have been asked to take advantage of new markets in the more integrated East African Community (EAC) writes SHARON KYATUSIIMIRE.
“The markets are huge; the EAC market is now bigger with the additional new markets like Goma in Congo which is still open for agricultural products and beauty products. “We have been lucky that the Congolese people appreciate our products. What the traders need to do is improve more on the quality of goods you intend to export and this can only be done by good branding and packaging,” Amelia Kyambadde, the trade minister said last week.
She was speaking at the fourth market-linked alumni meeting. Caroline Mulquee, Programme Manager/International Business linkages at Traidlink said: “Efforts by the Uganda Export Promotion Board (UEPB), together with Traidlinks, to build the competitiveness of 400 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to penetrate the East African market have started to yield results,” she said.
Since 2009, through an export development initiative dubbed ‘Market Linked’, the SMEs have been connected to buyers from the different East African Community member states with a mission to have Ugandan products penetrate the regional market. The new manufacturers are beneficiaries of a partnership between Uganda and Ireland under a programme called Traidlinks. MarketLinked is an initiative by Traidlinks to help forge business ties between manufacturing companies and other businesses in the EAC.
It capitalizes on the opportunities for intra-regional trade and business arising from the EAC Common Market. MarketLinked primarily is an initiative to advance regional economic integration which stimulates economic growth, believing that economic growth fosters creation of work opportunities.
Source: Business Week

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