President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni on Sunday July 30, 2023, officially opened Uganda Trade Hub known as Uganda Connect in Serbia’s capital of Belgrade.
The hub is aimed at strengthening bilateral relations between Uganda and Serbia and paving the way for the country’s goods and services in the Balkans region.
Launching the facility today, President Museveni, who is on a two-day official visit to Serbia, thanked his host, H.E Aleksandar Vučić and his government for giving Uganda a chance to promote her exports to the European country.
President Museveni, who is on a two-day official visit to Serbia, praised H.E. Aleksandar Vučić and his administration for giving Uganda a chance to promote her exports in the European nation.
“There’s some amount of coffee drinking in Serbia and in this part of the world; Russia and other places, so we want to promote our coffee to come here processed. They have agreed to buy our processed coffee,” said the President.
“I want to inform you that, as Uganda, we have started to open doors for our exports. Unlike some Western powers who want to buy our raw materials, Serbia has allowed, and they are ready to buy our processed goods such as coffee, clothes, food, and leather, among others,” he added.
According to President Museveni, the hub would be utilized to provide a contact point from where you can get everything you need and all the linkages, which will be crucial in promoting Uganda’s exports. The hub simplifies the address for anyone trying to purchase something from Uganda.
He expressed his gratitude to the Ugandan people, the Presidential Advisory Committee on Exports and Industrial Development (PACEID) team under the leadership of Odrek Rwabwogo, as well as other stakeholders, for their crucial contributions in helping Uganda reach this significant milestone in the promotion of its agricultural products around the world.
“Thank you so much. This milestone can also help us spread our wings to other parts of the world,” said Museveni.
President Museveni also hinted at raising the tax on processed coffee, and President Vucic promised to look into it.
“I raised it with His Excellency the President, and he is going to look into it. He will also come to Uganda for the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in January next year and by that time we would have moved quite a bit,” said Museveni.
Serbia is landlocked, and its economy is a service-based upper-middle income economy, with the tertiary sector accounting for two-thirds of total Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The economy functions on the principles of the free market.