Uganda, 2009

Before I deliver the

statement I have prepared I should like to support one

aspect of the long speech made by the Chairman of the

African Union, brother Muammar Al-Qadhafi, which

touched on so many issues, and that is reform of the

United Nations system and fairer representation for the

African Union in the Security Council. That is an

African position and I support it.

It is said in the Holy Bible, in the book of

Deuteronomy, chapter I, verses 2 and 3, that it was an

11-day journey from Horeb by way of Mount Seir to

Kadesh-barnea on the border of Canaan, yet it took the

Israelites, coming out of slavery in Egypt, some

40 years to complete it. It was a journey of only

11 days, but it took them 40 years.

In Deuteronomy, chapter VIII, verse 2, it also

says:

“And you shall remember that the Lord your God

led you all the way these 40 years in the

wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know

what was in your heart, whether you would keep

His commandments or not”.

Similarly, Africa, especially black Africa, has

been wandering in the desert of underdevelopment for

much of the 40 years following independence. As it

says in the Book of Common Prayer, one cannot help

but wonder whether it was because we had “left

undone those things which we ought to have done”,

and we had “done those things which we ought not to

have done”, and there was “no truth in us”. On the

other hand, the Asian countries — South Korea,

Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, India, et cetera — did

not similarly wander in the desert of

underdevelopment. That is not to mention the People’s

Republic of China.

Fortunately, in the past 15 to 20 years, Africans

have also grasped the development compass. We have

started to do what we had left undone for a long time,

and the truth is now beginning to be in us. Uganda’s

economy has grown at a rate of 6.5 per cent per annum

for the past 23 years. During the last financial year,

Uganda’s rate of growth was 7 per cent, in spite of the

global recession, which affected us all. In the current

financial year of 2009-2010, our rate of growth will be

in excess of 7 per cent. In the financial year 2007-

2008, our rate of growth was 9.8 per cent, before

adjusting for inflation.

We achieved these reasonable rates of growth

despite the fact that we have not yet dealt decisively

with three strategic infrastructure elements: electricity,

roads and railways. While we have achieved peace,

macroeconomic stability, education for all, some

aspects of health for all, economic integration in the

region, international market access, democratization

and scientific research, we have been slow on these

three: electricity, roads and railways. This slowness

was the result of dependence on foreign funding, which

tends to be frivolous and erratic. We depended on

foreign funding because our tax collections were

initially very low, but they have now grown in tandem

with the growth of the economy.

Uganda is, therefore, now able to fund road, rail

and electricity projects on its own, although of course

we welcome foreign investment. We can no longer,

however, be held to ransom by foreign funding for

those vital foundational elements of infrastructure. It is

amazing and, indeed, shameful to see the low levels of

electrification in Africa. In the United States, kilowatt-

hours per capita are 14,124. In Africa, on the other

hand, the figure is only 547 kilowatt-hours per capita.

Some African countries have as low as 9 kilowatt-

hours per capita. How could we expect growth and

transformation in such a situation?

The whole of Africa needs to wake up on this

issue and cooperate to find a solution. The same goes

for our high transport costs due to poor roads and poor

or non-existent railways. In China, it costs $12 to

transport a ton of cargo between Beijing and Shanghai

by rail. In East Africa, on the other hand, transporting

the same cargo over a comparable distance would

require $65. We are aware of these bottlenecks, and we

are dealing with them one by one.

There are two other bottlenecks that we often talk

about: the export of raw materials, and the failure to

transform subsistence and traditional farming into

modernized agriculture. The haemorrhage that is the

export of raw materials, for which we get only 10 per

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cent of the final processed product, has been

recognized by many of us as modern slavery.

In Uganda we are transforming traditional

subsistence agriculture into modern agriculture. This

involves using improved seeds, fertilizers, tractors,

irrigation, breeding stock and agricultural practices.

However, we know that we cannot do all of this

sustainably if we continue to neglect the environment.

Therefore, our development and transformation

manifesto and action plan in Uganda entails the

following: peace; democracy; education for all; health

for all; macroeconomic stability and economic

liberalization; electricity generation and distribution to

banish the very low levels of kilowatt-hours per capita;

modernization of roads; rebuilding and modernization

of railways; commercialization and modernization of

agriculture away from traditional subsistence farming;

adding value to our agricultural and mineral products

instead of just exporting raw materials, including

petroleum and gas; regional integration to widen

markets as well as accessing international markets;

environmental protection; and scientific research — we

are already supporting a quantity of innovative

research by Ugandan scientists.

Ugandans and other Africans in our region who

have been chronically underconsuming in the past are

now helping our economy to stay afloat in spite of the

global recession, because they now have greater

capacity to purchase what we produce. Their

consumption is going up, thus supporting our

regionally oriented industries. We think that we have at

last graduated from wandering in the desert of

underdevelopment and are now marching towards

socio-economic transformation. We are finally doing

that which we ought to have done and the truth, this

time, is in us. The phase of what the French scholar

René Dumont called “a false start” in Africa, or, in this

case, Uganda, is over. We are entering the phase of

growth and transformation. Thus, we believe, our

economy will soon take off.

Thus, Uganda’s response to the global crisis has

been fair, because of regional trade. It would have been

fairer if we had already dealt with the three

infrastructure elements I have talked about: roads,

electricity and railways. This would have enabled us to

lower the costs of doing business in Uganda and, thus,

increase the profitability of enterprises.

Africa has great potential for growth that is not

tapped. The current global crisis was caused by certain

laxities in the management of some of the economies

of the world. Those laxities need to be rectified

through multilateral action, as some heads of State

have already noted. We need to stop money-laundering

and strengthen regulation. Multilateral action would

also be welcome in unlocking the dormant potential of

Africa. In the case of Uganda and many other African

countries, we have a double challenge: first, the

struggle to transform our economies from a

pre-industrial to a modern state; secondly, to cope with

the problems caused by others, such as the present

global financial crisis and environmental degradation.

There are, however, a few questions I keep asking

myself. Is the present profligacy of some of the

developed countries sustainable if we all join in that

lifestyle? Or was it only possible when a tiny minority

of humanity was enjoying affluence? Is there a need

for a more rational modern lifestyle?

The need for dialogue among civilizations is long

overdue. That dialogue could help us deal with some of

the headaches and dilemmas confronted by humanity.