Movement des Enterprise De France (the largest French business leaders association) in partnership with the French Embassy in Uganda, will hold a multisector trade mission to Uganda from 25th to 26th November 2019.
According the French Ambassador to Uganda, His Excellency Jules – Armand Aniambossoum, the trade mission is to enable French business leaders to prospect and identify potential local partners in Uganda- an economy he said, offers significant business opportunities.
“This will be a tremendous opportunity for all French business leaders who will be taking part in this mission; it will be an opportunity to know more about the projects and sectors of activities pushed forward by the Ugandan government, in particular understanding the government’s vision for the coming months, discuss with Ugandan authorities, their projects, their ongoing activities, difficulties and have a conversation on the business environment in Uganda,” H.E Aniambossoum told journalists, during a media breakfast at his residence in Nakasero.
“This will also help to identify new Ugandan business partners and know more about international financial institutions, current and future financing in Uganda,” he added.
MEDEF and MEDEF International, represents over 170,000 French companies, more than 90% of which are largely SMES.
Some of the meetings and networking opportunities lined up are with Ugandan trade-related Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), resident representatives of key international financial institutions, private sector associations and individual businesses and business leaders.
In 2017, the MEDEF mission had a similar delegation of 36 ICT, energy, public works, infrastructure, transports, health, agri-business, petrochemical and international trade firms to Uganda.
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Although Uganda enjoys a fairly balanced trade position with the European Union (USD494 million) in exports to the EU in 2018 versus USD574.6 million in imports from EU- there still exists an imbalanced trade between France and Uganda in favour of France. According to 2018 statistics from Bank of Uganda, Uganda in 2018 imported goods worth some USD40 million from France, compared to USD6.2 million, Ugandan exports to France.
However, France, according to the Private Sector Investment Survey Report (PSIS) 2018 by Bank of Uganda, Uganda Bureau of Standards (UBOS) and Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) is among Uganda’s top 10 sources of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), registering UGX531 billion worth of investments in 2017, up from UGX463 billion in 2016.
According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) on the basis of FDI stock data through 2017, France continues to be the largest foreign investor in Africa both due to its historical links with a number of countries on the continent and due to large investments in major hydrocarbon-producing economies, particularly Nigeria and Angola.
France, under president, Emmanuel Macron has sought to redefine its foreign policy on Africa, built on mutual respect, equality and reciprocity.
