A conversation with president Yoweri Museveni

Q. What have you achieved on your current visit to China?

A. My visit this time has reached agreement of cooperation in two hydropower stations. We also reached agreement on contracting express roads starting from Kampala Airport. We also agreed on some government agencies supporting private companies from China. I am very happy with the results.

Q. What are the areas of largest potential in which China and Uganda can work together?

A. Uganda is very strong in agriculture. So agricultural processing, such as cotton, textiles, sugar, tea and coffee, has big potential.

I am confident that Uganda will become one of the major processed agricultural products exporters to China in the future.

And anything related to minerals, such as copper and oil, and uranium and nuclear energy have potential (for collaboration).

Q. How about the tourism sector?

A. In terms of tourism, Uganda is paradise. The two sides can cooperate in tourism. Uganda is blessed in terms of fresh water, mountains, wildlife, forests and no pollution.

Q. Many Chinese companies have investments in Ethiopia and Kenya, which is close to Uganda. Do you expect more Chinese companies to invest in Uganda?

A. Yes, such as investment in assembling vehicles, in agriculture, railways and the petroleum industry.

Currently China National Offshore Oil Corporation is developing an oil field in Uganda. The British tried to find oil there but gave up in the 1920s and 1930s. We discovered oil on our own. That project so promoted employment of locals that we opened university courses in petroleum exploration.

A significant change is that China has modified its strategy by emphasizing that projects should be economically viable, too. In Uganda, manufacturing is a good place for investment, because we are strong in agriculture - we produce food, cotton, sugar, tea, coffee - and we can process the primary products and export value-added goods with the manufacturing industry.

Q. Do you think China will become one of Uganda's largest trading partners or investors?

A. Yes, I think so. When somebody buys from you, he assists you because that will create more wealth, create more jobs. When you sell more you can expand production and promote employment. Africa has a population of 1.2 billion; by 2050, it will be 2.4 billion. China has a huge population, too. Human beings need to consume, need to buy; they are good, big markets for each other.

Q. China is very active in Africa. Do you believe China's new approach is an improvement on the Washington Consensus of the 1980s and 1990s, which many African leaders believe failed the continent?

A. It is. We have cooperated with China since 1949, and our elders and parents cooperated with each other. Like chairman Mao Zedong and premier Zhou Enlai, they helped Africa such as with the Tanzania Zambia railway without conditions, no politicization of economics, which is the problem with Western countries. We do not like Western countries that provide aid (in return) for control, with political conditions. They want to turn African countries into mere puppets.

If you advise somebody, you can advise but you have to distinguish advice from commands. No one understands Africa better than Africans. It is for a country to judge correctly its own way toward economic prosperity.

Q. Do you think China and Africa have a more equal cooperative relationship?

A. Yes. That is the line of chairman Mao from the beginning.

Q. Now China is undergoing some kind of transformation, and under your leadership Uganda has experienced growth. Is there anything Uganda can learn from China?

A. China can provide some lessons, like the use of industrial zones with state designations. I visited one in Tianjin. Its state-owned enterprises are owned by the government and operate in market-oriented ways. We will bring the experience back to Uganda. I talked with some executives from Liaoning province and plan to build an industrial zone in Uganda.

Q. What can China learn from Uganda?

A. We are very good at agriculture and in anything concerned with agriculture, China can learn from that. We can export processed agricultural products to China and other countries.

Q. Which part of China impresses you most?

A. Different parts of China impress me in different ways. They all do a good job in economic development.

Q. Do you think that there are big differences now in China compared with the first time you came here?

A. Yes, big changes. Especially in the industrial sector. Big changes have happened since I first came in 1989.

Q. Under your leadership, Uganda's economy has developed a lot. What are your expectations for the future?

A. Uganda has achieved economic recovery and fast development for the past 28 years. It could grow faster if we solved the problems and bottlenecks, like transport and markets. Actually, before Europeans came, Africa had a common market. It was inconvenient but it was there; the Europeans cut that.

Despite these bottlenecks, we have grown fast since the 1980s, and the main driving force is education and human resources development, because education creates scientists and promotes sciences. But that's only like upgrading "software".

In the future if there is no road, no electricity, no chief transport means, how could that growth come about? Those are the "hardware" issues for the economy.

Now with the development of roads, electricity and petroleum, growth will be much faster, maybe more than 14, 15 percent GDP growth annually, just like China in the past.

Q. Do you think there are some challenges and difficulties for Sino-Uganda cooperation?

A. No. I am very confident of the two nations' cooperation. Through cooperation, China, Africa and Latin America, including Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and Venezuela, can play a bigger role across the world.

Q. Do you like Chinese food?

A. Yes. I like spicy food most. But I don't eat fish and chicken. I only eat beef. President Xi always treats me to beef.

(China Daily Africa Weekly 04/10/2015 page6)