Before I deliver the
statement I have prepared I should like to support one
aspect of the long speech made by the Chairman of the
African Union, brother Muammar Al-Qadhafi, which
touched on so many issues, and that is reform of the
United Nations system and fairer representation for the
African Union in the Security Council. That is an
African position and I support it.
It is said in the Holy Bible, in the book of
Deuteronomy, chapter I, verses 2 and 3, that it was an
11-day journey from Horeb by way of Mount Seir to
Kadesh-barnea on the border of Canaan, yet it took the
Israelites, coming out of slavery in Egypt, some
40 years to complete it. It was a journey of only
11 days, but it took them 40 years.
In Deuteronomy, chapter VIII, verse 2, it also
says:
“And you shall remember that the Lord your God
led you all the way these 40 years in the
wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know
what was in your heart, whether you would keep
His commandments or not”.
Similarly, Africa, especially black Africa, has
been wandering in the desert of underdevelopment for
much of the 40 years following independence. As it
says in the Book of Common Prayer, one cannot help
but wonder whether it was because we had “left
undone those things which we ought to have done”,
and we had “done those things which we ought not to
have done”, and there was “no truth in us”. On the
other hand, the Asian countries — South Korea,
Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, India, et cetera — did
not similarly wander in the desert of
underdevelopment. That is not to mention the People’s
Republic of China.
Fortunately, in the past 15 to 20 years, Africans
have also grasped the development compass. We have
started to do what we had left undone for a long time,
and the truth is now beginning to be in us. Uganda’s
economy has grown at a rate of 6.5 per cent per annum
for the past 23 years. During the last financial year,
Uganda’s rate of growth was 7 per cent, in spite of the
global recession, which affected us all. In the current
financial year of 2009-2010, our rate of growth will be
in excess of 7 per cent. In the financial year 2007-
2008, our rate of growth was 9.8 per cent, before
adjusting for inflation.
We achieved these reasonable rates of growth
despite the fact that we have not yet dealt decisively
with three strategic infrastructure elements: electricity,
roads and railways. While we have achieved peace,
macroeconomic stability, education for all, some
aspects of health for all, economic integration in the
region, international market access, democratization
and scientific research, we have been slow on these
three: electricity, roads and railways. This slowness
was the result of dependence on foreign funding, which
tends to be frivolous and erratic. We depended on
foreign funding because our tax collections were
initially very low, but they have now grown in tandem
with the growth of the economy.
Uganda is, therefore, now able to fund road, rail
and electricity projects on its own, although of course
we welcome foreign investment. We can no longer,
however, be held to ransom by foreign funding for
those vital foundational elements of infrastructure. It is
amazing and, indeed, shameful to see the low levels of
electrification in Africa. In the United States, kilowatt-
hours per capita are 14,124. In Africa, on the other
hand, the figure is only 547 kilowatt-hours per capita.
Some African countries have as low as 9 kilowatt-
hours per capita. How could we expect growth and
transformation in such a situation?
The whole of Africa needs to wake up on this
issue and cooperate to find a solution. The same goes
for our high transport costs due to poor roads and poor
or non-existent railways. In China, it costs $12 to
transport a ton of cargo between Beijing and Shanghai
by rail. In East Africa, on the other hand, transporting
the same cargo over a comparable distance would
require $65. We are aware of these bottlenecks, and we
are dealing with them one by one.
There are two other bottlenecks that we often talk
about: the export of raw materials, and the failure to
transform subsistence and traditional farming into
modernized agriculture. The haemorrhage that is the
export of raw materials, for which we get only 10 per
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cent of the final processed product, has been
recognized by many of us as modern slavery.
In Uganda we are transforming traditional
subsistence agriculture into modern agriculture. This
involves using improved seeds, fertilizers, tractors,
irrigation, breeding stock and agricultural practices.
However, we know that we cannot do all of this
sustainably if we continue to neglect the environment.
Therefore, our development and transformation
manifesto and action plan in Uganda entails the
following: peace; democracy; education for all; health
for all; macroeconomic stability and economic
liberalization; electricity generation and distribution to
banish the very low levels of kilowatt-hours per capita;
modernization of roads; rebuilding and modernization
of railways; commercialization and modernization of
agriculture away from traditional subsistence farming;
adding value to our agricultural and mineral products
instead of just exporting raw materials, including
petroleum and gas; regional integration to widen
markets as well as accessing international markets;
environmental protection; and scientific research — we
are already supporting a quantity of innovative
research by Ugandan scientists.
Ugandans and other Africans in our region who
have been chronically underconsuming in the past are
now helping our economy to stay afloat in spite of the
global recession, because they now have greater
capacity to purchase what we produce. Their
consumption is going up, thus supporting our
regionally oriented industries. We think that we have at
last graduated from wandering in the desert of
underdevelopment and are now marching towards
socio-economic transformation. We are finally doing
that which we ought to have done and the truth, this
time, is in us. The phase of what the French scholar
René Dumont called “a false start” in Africa, or, in this
case, Uganda, is over. We are entering the phase of
growth and transformation. Thus, we believe, our
economy will soon take off.
Thus, Uganda’s response to the global crisis has
been fair, because of regional trade. It would have been
fairer if we had already dealt with the three
infrastructure elements I have talked about: roads,
electricity and railways. This would have enabled us to
lower the costs of doing business in Uganda and, thus,
increase the profitability of enterprises.
Africa has great potential for growth that is not
tapped. The current global crisis was caused by certain
laxities in the management of some of the economies
of the world. Those laxities need to be rectified
through multilateral action, as some heads of State
have already noted. We need to stop money-laundering
and strengthen regulation. Multilateral action would
also be welcome in unlocking the dormant potential of
Africa. In the case of Uganda and many other African
countries, we have a double challenge: first, the
struggle to transform our economies from a
pre-industrial to a modern state; secondly, to cope with
the problems caused by others, such as the present
global financial crisis and environmental degradation.
There are, however, a few questions I keep asking
myself. Is the present profligacy of some of the
developed countries sustainable if we all join in that
lifestyle? Or was it only possible when a tiny minority
of humanity was enjoying affluence? Is there a need
for a more rational modern lifestyle?
The need for dialogue among civilizations is long
overdue. That dialogue could help us deal with some of
the headaches and dilemmas confronted by humanity.