Lessons Uganda can learn from Turkey's growth strategy

By Edmond Kizito

Uganda has just come out the national elections that highlighted some gaps in some sectors of the economy.  However, as the Government continues to plug these loopholes, it would be better to pick some lessons from some countries that have tried to better their systems. One of such countries is Turkey.

Notwithstanding the terrorists' and refugee challenges, Turkey is a country that has lessons for both the developed and the developing world.

With a healthcare system that cares for all - providing universal coverage for all its 80 million-odd population -- even the United States could pick its lessons.

Tourists flock this country at a rate of about 40 million per annum, dwarfing many states of its ilk. They go to see ancient ruins, get treatment in its modern health centres or find chances to do business in this nation that straddles both Asia and Europe.

At the tourist promotion office in downtown Istanbul, the commercial capital, a young lady marveled at how she lives in Asia and works in Europe.

"I commute by boat everyday," she told us in her offices at a demonstration, not far away from the Bosphorus pass, a canal that separates the two continents in this place.

"If I am late for work, my superiors would understand," she added.

Two continents indeed that have responded well to the country's efforts to modernise. I was part of a government-sponsored team of Ugandan reporters and editors that recently went there to get a feel of what Turkey can do for and with Uganda.

At the Ugandan embassy in Ankara, the custom-built political capital, Ugandan Ambassador Johnson Agara Olwa spoke of a special $350 million fund set up by the country's leadership to help businesses that seek partnerships with African counterparts.

"We call it the ‘New Turkey' Initiative for Africa, said a Turkish official at the country's presidency.

"Our aim is to re-establish ties - business, diplomatic and cultural - that we once had with that continent," he added.

Turkish company Kolin Construction already built the Hoima-Kaiso Tonya road in the oil-rich western Ugandan region.

"It is one of the very best," one foreign affairs official later said in Kampala.

Turkey's tourism benefits much from its history. Home of the famed Ottoman Empire of the 16th Century, the country, which officially has some 98% of its population as Muslims, boasts many ancient relics, some of them Christian.

It even has one of the world's largest Muslim worship centres, the Blue Mosque, where tourists jostle for positions to have their photographs taken, all the year round.

Turkey is where the mother of Jesus, founder of all Christianity, died. The house she lived in at the time has been preserved.

All the seven churches of the Bible's concluding book of Revelation are found in the country -- some distance from the capital - but can be reached by land, rail or air. Religious tourism booms and this another area that Uganda Tourism Board should pick interest as they popularise the same in Uganda, especially in relation to Namugongo martyrs and others.

Turkey has as one of its major tourist attractions the palace the last Sultan, the emperor of the final Ottoman Empire that engulfed kingdoms as far away as India and Egypt.

It has its modern-day equivalent in the current presidential palace in Ankara, specifically built to replace an earlier one now relegated to use by the country's Prime Minister. Ankara is the capital city which is only an hour out of Istanbul, the main entry way with the country's major international airport. It is three hours by train and five hours by road.

Turkey wants to do business with Africa and Uganda has been considered. With help from their government, whose economy, at $722b of Gross Domestic product is the 18th largest in the world, that should work out.

What they need now are partners ready to walk hand in hand with Turkish groups.

The writer is a media practitioner