Kampala, Uganda — As Uganda and Mauritius trade ties continue to improve judging from the increase in exports and imports, the country is looking at investing in Uganda's energy and oil sectors.
During a press briefing at the Uganda Media Center in Kampala yesterday, Mauritius' Minister of Industry, Commerce and Consumer Protection, Hon. Cader Sayed-Hossen said that there are a number of areas companies from Mauritius want to explore in Uganda.
He said, "We already have some companies from Mauritius here. There's a major bank from Mauritius looking to set up here. We are also looking at investing in areas of energy and the oil sector then of course the service industry as well."
Cader Sayed added that the purpose of his visit to Uganda was to consolidate and broaden economic cooperation between the two countries and also find a solution to the existing Non Tariff Barriers.
"We would like to explore additional areas of cooperation but we have also identified that there are a few bottlenecks that are hampering the smooth flow of goods and services especially in the field of standards.
"Very often the bottlenecks come down to standards. We have agreed that our two Standards agencies allow for flow of information so as to allow for mutual recognition of goods," he said.
Cader Sayed also added that Mauritius is offering employment opportunities to Ugandan IT professionals.
"We shall be happy to welcome professionals in that (IT) field because we have a booming IT sector and we have heard that Uganda has some of the best IT professionals," he added.
Uganda's Minister for Trade, Industry and Cooperatives, Ms. Amelia Kyambadde also told the journalists at the briefing that Uganda's trade with Mauritius had improved over the years with exports increasing from $1.1m in 2005 to $2.74m in 2015. Imports had also increased from $9.2m in 2005 to $9.8m in 2012.
Source: http://allafrica.com
