Uganda has pitched itself as a low-cost manufacturing base for Africa at a trade and investment meeting in Seoul, seeking South Korean capital and technology to help drive its ambition of expanding the economy to $500 billion by 2040.
The Uganda-South Korea Trade and Investment Meeting, co-hosted with the Korea International Trade Association, brought together government officials and businesses from both countries to discuss investment opportunities in manufacturing, agriculture, technology, energy and mining.
Uganda’s Second Deputy Prime Minister Crispus Kiyonga said the economy had grown to about $70 billion, with real gross domestic product expanding by more than 6% annually over the past decade.
Growth could exceed 10% once commercial oil production begins later this year, he said.
Kiyonga highlighted incentives including rapid business registration, a 10-year tax holiday, exemptions on imported machinery and access to land for strategic projects.
Uganda’s membership of the East African Community, COMESA and the African Continental Free Trade Area gives investors access to a wider African market, he said.
“Uganda is at the heart of Africa,” Kiyonga said, pointing to the country’s central location and youthful, largely English-speaking population.
The investment pitch received an early boost on Monday when Uganda signed a memorandum of understanding with South Korean coffee company GVCC Co. Ltd.
Under the agreement, Besmark Coffee Company Ltd will be Uganda’s exclusive supplier and GVCC its exclusive distributor in South Korea. The first shipment of two containers is already being sent, the Ugandan delegation said.
The companies plan to use the South Korean port city of Busan as a hub to process and re-export Ugandan coffee to other Asian markets, including Japan and Southeast Asia.
GVCC Chief Executive Soo-jung Lim said the company became interested in Ugandan coffee after meeting the Ugandan delegation at an exhibition in Busan.
Uganda’s Ambassador to Japan, Tophace Kaahwa, said the Korean company was targeting purchases of about one 20-tonne container a day, equivalent to roughly 3,500 tonnes a year.
Uganda Investment Authority official Richard Nuweyesiga said the government was prioritising agro-industrialisation, tourism, science and technology, and mineral development.
He urged Korean companies to combine their capital and technology with Uganda’s resources.
Officials said opportunities existed to manufacture vehicle parts, filters, medical devices, diagnostic equipment and pharmaceuticals locally.
Uganda could also develop value chains in coffee, cocoa, fish and dairy, while opportunities existed in iron and steel processing, renewable energy and nuclear applications, they said.
South Korea’s foreign ministry official Kwang-yong Chung said Africa was becoming an increasingly important engine of global growth and that Seoul wanted to translate strong political relations into greater trade and investment.
South Korea plans to host the next South Korea-Africa Summit in 2029 after the inaugural summit in 2024, Chung said.
The two countries established diplomatic relations in 1963. Uganda says South Korean development assistance to the country has exceeded $500 million in health, education and infrastructure.
The Seoul meeting, which runs through Sept. 10, follows a diaspora engagement in which Ugandan officials encouraged citizens living in South Korea to invest their capital and skills in Uganda.
Six Ugandan companies also held matchmaking sessions with Korean firms in electronics, biotechnology and financial technology.
