The establishment of
border export zones and their operationalisation will have to wait until the
trade ministry gets funding.
Trade minister Amelia
Kyambadde made the revelation at the recently concluded sector review meeting.
She said because of lack of funding, they cannot recruit the human resource needed
to run the facilities.
In 2010, the Government
developed and adopted a border export zone/border market programme to position
the country for regional market opportunities.
Land has been secured
in seven districts for the project, including Amuru (247 acres at Elegu), Busia
(173 acres at Masafu) Kabale (238.8Acrs at Katuna) Kasese (3 acres at Mpondwe),
Manafwa (89.3 at Lwakhakha) and Koboko (78 hectares at Oraba).
To that effect,
development of master plans and documentation of bills of quantity, in addition
to environmental impact assessment, have been undertaken for Elegu, Lwakhakha,
Busia, Katuna, Kikagati and Oraba, according to Kyambadde.
The Government secured
one million Euros from COMESA for the construction of one border market in the
next financial year, the minister said.
She added that additional
funding worth $2million has been secured from World Bank under the GLTF to
develop a border market at Mpondwe border export zone that was launched in
September this year.
“This leaves out all
the other mark zones, but government is in the process of mobilizing funds to
ensure that construction of all the export zones are completed within 10
years,” Kyambadde said.
She hailed donors
through Trademark East Africa, for supporting the development of the Uganda
Electronic Single Window (UESW), a trade facilitation aimed at reducing the
time taken to clear goods. Agencies already on the single window include URA,
UCDA, UNBS, NDA, and Ministry of trade among others.
Another trade
intervention supported by DFID through TMEA is the One Stop Border Post (OSBP)
and Trade Information Portal among other interventions.
According to a senior
program officer at TMEA, Damali Ssali, the OSBP means that when a truck or
passenger is entering Uganda from Kenya, at say Busia border, they clear all
border processes on one side of the border which automatically cuts down border
crossing time by more than 50%.
Ssali explained that in
the second phase of their trade facilitation programs they will continue to
focus on reducing barriers to trade and improving business competitiveness by
supporting the implement the National Export Development Strategy and Cross
border Trade.
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