Speech
By
H.E. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni
President of the Republic of Uganda
At the
16th COMESA Summit
23rd November 2012
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Your Excellencies,
Heads of State and Government,
Heads of delegations,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen.
I greet you and I welcome you to Uganda for this 16th
COMESA Summit.
The greatest disadvantage Africa faced at independence,
ever since 1957, when Ghana got independence, was
political balkanization of this continent.
The North
American Continent has got only three countries ― USA,
Canada and Mexico.
The South American continent has
got 15 countries including the Central American Isthmus
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and the three dependencies of Falkland Islands, French
Guiana, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.
The Australian continent has got one country, Australia.
The Indian sub-continent has got only six countries which
are: Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and
Bhutan. The huge Euro-Asian landmass, stretching from
the border of Poland to the Pacific, until 1990, had only six
countries which were: the Soviet Union, Afghanistan,
China, Korea, Mongolia and Iran, if you excluded the
Balkans and the Middle East.
This was a land area of
about 12 million square miles, bigger than the whole of
Africa.
When the Soviet Union broke up, there are now
more countries in that zone of the globe. When, however, it
comes to Africa, there are now 54 countries. None of them
is more than one million square miles or 200 million
people.
About 36 of them, even today, have got a
population less than 15 million.
At independence, some
had as few people as less than one million.
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This balkanization posed the following problems to the
newly independent Africa:
Small economies on account of, not only the purchasing
power of the population because of under-development and
small incomes, but also on account of the small numbers
of consumers even in absolute terms. Without consumers
and adequate purchasing power, enterprises (businesses)
cannot
thrive.
undermined.
Profitability
of
these
enterprises
is
If the profitability is affected, then, few
enterprises (e.g. Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) will be
attracted to these economies and few new ones will emerge.
Without enough number of enterprises emerging or being
attracted in an economy, jobs will not be created, goods
and services will not be available (or will have to be
imported), technology will not grow, the tax base will not
expand and, therefore, funding social services (health,
education, etc.) and infrastructure (roads, electricity, etc.)
will be very difficult, etc. The best example is to compare
China with East Africa. Since 1978 when China started its
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open-door policy, US$ 1.232 trillion have been attracted
into that country from outside as FDI.
Yet they are
communists and do not have the fashion of multi-party
democracy Africa has been engaged in ― they have a
different system of governance which has served them well.
East Africa, on the other hand, has only been able to
attract US$ 19.1 billion in the same period in FDI.
Yet we
have been running free markets, running multi-party
democracy, etc. China now is the 2nd biggest economy in
the whole world, having overtaken the small but highly
developed economies of UK, France, Germany and Japan.
What were the stimulus factors for this phenomenal growth
and transformation of the Chinese economy and society?
The stimulus factors were the size of the Chinese
population (1.3 billion people), the size of their land area (3
million square miles) and, of course, the dynamism as well
as a rich culture of their society. In other words, it was the
absence of political balkanization of the Chinese race ―
both political and geographical.
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Of course, political balkanization has got implications for
defence
and
strategic
concerned peoples.
security
or
otherwise
of
the
China has now joined USA, Russia,
and India as a space science country. This enhances her
capacity of strategic security.
Africa is totally lacking in
that area. The war technology gap that was pioneered in
1337, when Edward III of England first used gun-powder
against Scots, between Europe on the one hand and Africa,
Asia, the Americans as well as Austro-Asia on the other
hand, has been widening ever more and more, particularly
for the Africans that have remained stagnant.
Therefore, the foresight by the Lagos Action Plan, which
pointed out the need to be organized in the building blocs
for trade for different zones of Africa in order to tackle this
balkanization, was correct. Integration is one of the major
therapies for Africa which has been in decline since 1785
BC when the Hyksos first invaded and conquered Egypt,
the African cradle of human civilization. Integration should
have two dimensions - economic and, where possible, also
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political integration. In East Africa, we are aiming at both political and economic integration.
The people of East Africa have, for decades, been yearning
for an East African Federation that would deal with both
political and economic integration.
This is the ultimate
goal of EAC. There are those who ask the question: “Why
EAC and COMESA? This is the answer. EAC intends to
travel further because the peoples are either similar or very
compatible and are aiming at also the political integration,
leading to the Federation of EA.
COMESA, on the other
hand, right from the beginning, aimed at economic
integration because political integration at the continental
level is quite unrealistic.
Trade, however, is not only
realistic, but necessary. This is why Uganda never joined
SADC when it was formed by our fellow freedom fighters
that had been active in the anti-colonial struggle. We only
saw those two dimensions - the political and the economic.
Since
SADC
did
not
make
the
political
integration
dimension explicit, we did not see the need to duplicate the
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trading arrangement mechanism.
I am glad that now
COMESA, EAC and SADC are engaged with one another
under the tripartite efforts.
COMESA has done well and will even do better.
As you
heard, the trade volumes among COMESA members are of
the magnitude of US$ 18.8 billion.
This will grow if we
could deal with infrastructure - the roads and the railways.
I want to see a rail link with South Sudan, a rail link with
Kisangani in Congo, a rail link with Gisenyi in Rwanda and
the up-grading of the East African Railway system to a
standard gauge. We need railway links with Ethiopia and
Somalia from Kenya.
In the end, we need to conclude the agreement on the
African Common market. In 2077, the population of Africa
will be three billion. We should create that unified trading
space for our grand children and great-grand children. A
big market is not only good for giving our producers greater
markets for their products (goods and services). It is also
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good to enable us to negotiate with others (USA, EU, China,
Russia, India, South America, Japan, ASEAN, etc) for
access to their markets.
The Ugandans (Banyankore) say: “Ija turye kumwe biri aine
eki akurebireho” ― the one who invites you for a meal does
so because he/she knows that you have got capacity to
reciprocate.
Indeed, from the Bible, in the Gospel of St.
Luke 8:18, it says: “…For whoever has, more will be given to
him; and whoever does not have, even what he thinks he
has will be taken away from him…”
The one who has something will get more benefits. In this
case, the stronger you are, the more you get.
We are,
therefore, on the right road.
I thank you very much.
23rd November 2012
-
Munyonyo Speke Resort.
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