Uganda and Iran have agreed to share experience in petrochemical industries, science and technology development.
This was during the visit of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Wednesday to Uganda where he also met the country’s President Yoweri Museveni.
Raisi, who is on a two-day state visit to Uganda, arrived in the country early in the day and was received by his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni at the State House in Entebbe, 40 km south of the capital Kampala.
In a joint press conference, Museveni asked Raisi to share Iran’s experience in the oil sector with Uganda which is in the process of setting up an oil refinery and other factories in the industry.
“Iran has got experience which we don’t have. I recently watched on news that Iran was setting up a petrochemical center. So there are areas of complementarity since we are also planning to set up a petrochemical industry,” Museveni said.
He added, “Today, we shared on the possibilities to collaborate on the pathogenic and petrochemical industries, agriculture, fighting terrorism and extremism and harnessing our science, innovation and technology cadre-ship.”
“We try to strengthen our relations with African countries, especially friendly countries like Uganda,” Raisi said. “We need to promote and expand our relations in terms of politics, culture, science and technology.”
Raisi said his country was ready to share its experience in science and technology development with Uganda. “The Western countries have a system of dominance where they are generally not interested in seeing other countries who enjoy natural resources add value to these resources.”
“They are only interested in raw materials from these countries so that they can sell finished products to them,” he added. He vowed to share with Uganda Iranian experience and technology in manufacturing medical equipment and pharmaceuticals. “We shall set up a technology center in Uganda,” he said.
Uganda is Raisi’s second leg of the tour to Africa after the Iranian president visited Kenya. This is the first trip to Africa made by an Iranian president in the past 11 years, during which Iran aims to improve political and trade cooperation with African countries and diversify Iran’s export destinations.
