Ggoobi, TWO boss hold talks in Geneva

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Ramathan Ggoobi, the Permanent Secretary and Secretary to the Treasury, Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, earlier this week held talks with Deputy Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Mr Zhang Xiangchen.

Ggoobi, who was on a two-day working visit to Geneva, on Thursday (February 20th) made a courtesy call to Zhang's office at the WTO Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.

(Courtesy photo)

His delegation included Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, Ambassador Arthur Kafeero, Commissioner of Economic Development, Policy and Research, Mr Joseph Enyimu and Mr Moses Kabanda, Commissioner of Public Administration in the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development.

During the engagement, Ggoobi hailed WTO's continuous support and highlighted the important role of trade and development for Uganda and other LDCs and developing countries.

A release from the Foreign Affairs Ministry stated that Ggoobi also acknowledged that Uganda received Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF), funding support for country projects totalling over $6.9m.

“I wish to thank you for the WTO’s continued project support towards Uganda, including through the Aid for Trade Initiative and the Enhanced Integrated Framework. Uganda received $6.9m comprising support to building the institutional capacity for trade; diagnostics; and strengthening the capacity of district commercial offices and productive capacity development in the tourism sector,” he said.

Recalling the last WTO Ministerial Conference in February 2024, Ggoobi welcomed the Abu Dhabi Ministerial Declaration’s reiteration of the centrality of the development dimension in the work of the WTO, recognising that the full integration of developing Members, including least-developed countries (LDCs), in the multilateral trading system, is important for their economic development.

“As a land-locked LDC, we see great potential in Intra-African trade offering greater scope to support economic diversification and export stabilization, considering that the EAC has a market of three hundred million people, COMESA 640 million and the AFCFTA about 1.4 billion,” said the PS.

Ggoobi and Zhang's meeting also discussed the green transition as well as the importance of Digital Trade for Uganda, acknowledging the digital infrastructure gap, including limited internet access and high costs, especially in rural areas. Ggoobi took the opportunity to inform his host that Uganda had formally expressed its interest in joining the “Digital Trade for Africa” Project, a joint WTO/World Bank effort that seeks to help African countries share fully in the benefits that digital trade brings and improve their development prospects.

(Courtesy photo)

The PS also briefed the DDG on Uganda’s 10-fold growth strategy anchored on the pillars of Agro-processing, Tourism, Mineral Resource Development and Science and technology transfer and creative economies.

The MOFA release states that Deputy Director-General Zhang applauded Uganda on her path to achieving her development goals through digital transformation and for the ambitious target of the 10-fold growth strategy by 2040 the current DGP. He emphasized the importance of e-commerce and digital transformation as key elements to achieving such exponential ambition.

Zhang said that in view of the demographics of Uganda with a high percentage of youth, there is great potential in encouraging and developing a creative economy, citing examples from his own country of origin, China that to date relies heavily on creativity and digitalization, not only in basic Information Technologies but embedding AI into critical sectors like Agriculture.

He cited Uganda’s improved regulatory framework and e-commerce protection. “The WTO will, going forward increase its engagement with African economies and learn good practices from each other.” 

While in Europe, PS Ggoobi in a different engagement, had a meeting with Mr William Roos, Assistant Secretary Multilateral, Development and Trade Affairs at the French Treasury Directorate.

The February 19, meeting took place at the French Ministry of Economics, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty premises in Paris.

The PS was accompanied by Uganda’s Ambassador to France, Doreen Ruth Amule, Commissioner of Economic Development, Policy & Research, Mr Joseph Enyimu, Commissioner of Public Administration, Moses Kabanda, Commissioner of Executive Operations, Uganda Revenue Authority, Mr Abel Kagumire and Head of Public Diplomacy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Margaret Kafeero.

Ggoobi reflected on a series of previous meetings and gave an update about Uganda’s economy continuing to register good progress.

“The GDP growth for the year ending June 2024 was 6% with a positive projection for the June 2025 year-end at 7% - 8%,” he said. He attributed this improvement to the roll-out of the Paris Development Model which has changed the approach from subsistence Agriculture to more commercial-oriented agriculture. He added that inflation in Uganda was stable with one of the lowest rates in the region, something that could be attributed to managing the price of food.

In response to Roos’ question on loan priority areas, Ggoobi informed him that the Uganda Government was making very strict decisions on which loans could be undertaken, capitalizing on transport infrastructure like the SGR construction Electricity transmission and Irrigation, which he said is a priority given the risks associated with climate change to make agriculture more predictable. He added that Development Financing was being geared towards Agro-Processing, Tourism and Mineral Development (ATMs) Uganda Government was therefore pursuing low-cost Capital to shore up funds in UDB to feed sector areas.

Roos expressed delight at Uganda’s approach to managing currency and debt management. He encouraged Uganda to increase communication about its successes because there are many examples to be seen. “France agrees with Uganda on debt sustainability, with caution, encouraging more IMF cooperation in getting the risk assessment back from moderate to low,” he said.

Both sides agreed on further cooperation on exchange programs in studying and understanding various tax collection and exemption processes.