President\nYoweri Museveni has urged African leaders and all African people to\nstrategically conceptualise and conceive the importance of continental integration\nas a vital component for her prosperity and future of its people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a keynote address yesterday on the issue of tackling barriers to intra-Africa trade and investment, during the second day of AFRICA NOW Summit at Speke Resort Munyonyo in Kampala, the attributed the slow integration process of the African continent to the failure by African people to realise that integration was for the befit of all Africans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He noted that failure to integrate will go against the prosperity of the continent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe\npolitical and intellectual class of Africans need to know that failure to integrate\nwill go against the prosperity of the African continent bearing in mind that\nit\u2019s the only way to guarantee the continent\u2019s survival. Failure by Africa to integrate\nwill lead to further marginalisation of the continent or at worst the\nenslavement of her people because of failure to secure their destiny,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nPresident further told the Summit that ended yesterday that intergration propels\nthe prosperity of nations because it eases market flow of goods and services by\nremoving all barriers to trade an investment adding that every African must\nappreciate market access as a major driving factor to economic development and\nprosperity of nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Citing\nthe example of the United States of America and Europe, Mr. Museveni said that\nalthough those areas developed on account of, among others, acquisition of\nslave labour and natural resources from colonies in Africa, lack of sufficient\nmarkets for the many products that their industries were producing at the time\nled to the great economic depression of 1929 forcing them to re-think on their\neconomic way of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He,\ntherefore, wondered why the African continent could not see the importance of integration\nand having a single bargaining voice when developed economies, like China and\nIndia with 1.3 billion people each, realised it and opened their markets to the\nworld, an act that has seen their economies prosper in a short period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf\nChina and India, with 1.3 billion people each, have realised that they can\u2019t\nprosper on their own and opened their economies to trade with the world, how\ncan Uganda expect to prosper on her own with a 40 million people market,\u201d he\nobserved. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He\nalso reminded told Summit about the former British colonies that integrated to\nform the current USA making it the greatest nation it is today and the former\nSpanish colonies of South and Central America who refused to integrate and the\ndire economic situation they are in today. He, therefore, stressed that Africa\u2019s\nintegration was a matter that needed no further discussion as it\u2019s\noperationalization would go a long way to remove unnecessary taxes, facilitate\nthe movement of goods, services, capital and labour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Regarding\nfree continental movement in Africa, President Museveni said that the National\nResistance Movement fully supports free entry of Africans to Uganda as long as\nall countries have biometrically registered their citizens for security reasons\nand sign a treaty not to act behind any other country\u2019s back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He singled out lack of sufficient infrastructure such as roads, railways and water transport to link African countries, as one major barrier to the integration of the continent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He, therefore, stressed the need by African countries to budget and develop infrastructure to ease the integration process. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He also emphasized the need to work on the quality and safety of the products for the African market, creation of high standard of goods on the continent that are acceptable globally. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Regarding the talk of indebtedness of the African continent to China, President Museveni who described China as a positive ally led by revolutionary people today, said that China can only be a problem to Africa on account of Africa\u2019s internal weakness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He added that if Africa is properly organized internally, China is African continent\u2019s best ally today and in the future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He urged the youth of Africa to know this and organise themselves to guarantee their destiny. On the continued export of labour, especially to the Middle East, the President attributed it to unemployment in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He, however, expressed optimism that with the current economic growth, many youth will find employment in the country and that the trend of labour export will be halted. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Yoweri Museveni has urged African leaders and all African people to strategically conceptualise and conceive the importance of continental integration as a vital component for her prosperity and future of its people. In a keynote address yesterday on the issue of tackling barriers to intra-Africa trade and investment, during the second day of AFRICA […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27983,"featured_media":8641,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_paywall_metabox":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[31],"class_list":["post-8640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-featured"],"yoast_head":"\n