Tayebwa calls for improved trade balance with France

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KAMPALA - The deputy speaker of Parliament, Thomas Tayebwa, has urged Ugandans to put in more efforts to increase exports to France which is a strong partner of Uganda.

Tayebwa said at the moment France was exporting more to Uganda leading to a trade imbalance.

He was addressing guests on Friday, July 12, 2024, attending the colourful Bastille Day celebrations. The celebrations were held at the residence of Xavier Sticker, the French Ambassador to Uganda at Nakasero, Kampala.

“We must work hard in order to reduce the balance of the trade deficit of $57m (sh211b) which was in favor of France last year. We hope the newly launched French Chamber of Commerce in Uganda will help in reducing this deficit,” Tayebwa said.

Tayebwa thanked Xavier Sticker, the French Ambassador to Uganda, for spearheading warm and cordial diplomatic relations between Uganda and France.

“As partners in development, prosperity, security, and regional stability, Uganda and France continue to cooperate in many areas, including peace and security”.

He welcomed France’s continuing efforts and commitment towards peace and stability in Eastern Africa and the Great Lakes region.

Thomas Tayebwa (R), the Deputy Speaker of Parliament talking to the Ambassador of France to Uganda, HE. Xavier Sticker (L) during the Bastille Day celebration at the French Ambassador residence in Nakasero, on 12 June 12, 2024. (Credit: Hajarah Nalwadda)

He noted that the over 40 French companies operating in Uganda employ over 3,000 Ugandans and contributed 53% of total foreign direct investment to the country last financial year, with most of it going to the oil and gas sector.

The deputy speaker reechoed Uganda’s position on the UN Security Council Reform and requested France to use its position as a permanent member of the UN Security Council to support the Common African Position that was adopted by AU Member States in 2005.

The position calls for two permanent seats with all prerogatives and privileges, including the right of veto.

Sticker said that on Bastille Day, the French celebrate their illustrious revolution, the first steps of representative democracy, the end of the absolutism of the kings, and the beginning of the march towards the republic.

“As well as celebrating our revolution, we are also celebrating the principles of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen and the values enshrined in the famous republican motto, "liberté, égalité, fraternité".

“We are proud of these ideas, which the revolutionaries of 1789 disseminated and helped to germinate elsewhere in the world. May they remain the compass that guides us, including in our own democratic life.

Guests attending the Bastille Day celebration at his residence in Nakasero, on June 12, 2024. (Credit: Hajarah Nalwadda)

This year, I'm adding another motto to our "liberté, égalité, fraternité": "plus vite, plus haut, plus fort" (faster, higher, and stronger).

This is the motto of the Olympic Games, reintroduced in 1896 by the Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin after a two-thousand-year hiatus. Paris hosted the Olympic Games in 1924.

One hundred years later, Paris is preparing to host them a second time this summer, from 26th July to 8th August 2024 for the Olympic Games and from 28th August to 8th September 2024 for the Paralympic Games,” Sticker explained.

On water supply, Sticker revealed through French support one achievement in December 2024 will be the delivery in December of a major water treatment plant and a network that will supply water to a million Ugandans, from the border with Tanzania to Mbarara.

He indicated that through the Ugandan-French partnership, they are promoting peace and stability in East Africa.