Six Decades of China-Uganda Win-Win Partnership

by Admin (Posted on July 11, 2022July 11, 2022)

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On the 28^th of June 2022, the Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Uganda held a briefing on the 60^th anniversary of the China-Uganda diplomatic relations with Ugandan media and Think Tanks at the Chinese Embassy. Aware from Ambassador’s address, there is no doubt Sino-Uganda diplomatic relations have greatly contributed to Uganda’s social and economic transformation. Diplomatic relations between the two countries were established on the 18^th of October 1962, exactly nine days after Uganda gained her Independence from the British Colonialists.

Ambassador Zhang Lizhong’s address to media and think tanks was really a re-assuring as he went through the nature of Uganda’s relations with China while emphasizing past collaborations, current partnerships, and the huge potential for future diplomacy and engagement between the two friendly countries. While his address painted a worrying situation about current confrontational nature of international politics, ambassador Zhang his address on a hopeful note with reference to the availability of space for cooperation and understanding around the world with China as an obvious proponent of a peaceful, respectful, and collaborative global politics. One can also argue that with Global development Initiative (GDI) and global Security Initiative (GSI), the current confrontational nature of international politics will be addressed amicably. The GDI and GSI were both proposed by president Xi Jinping who holds a vision of whole humanity, with the aim of providing international products to meet the aspirations of the times – that is to say; peace and development with hope of building a community for humanity with a shared future and common prosperity.

When we look at Uganda and China, the two share a similar past of suffering under the iron fist of imperialism, colonialism, political instability, and civil carnage. This plethora of shared experiences has played a huge role in forging the bond that keeps tightening between the two countries. It was only fitting that Ambassador Zhang characterized China and Uganda as “good comrades, good friends, good partners and good brothers.” He also encouraged the relationship between the two states with a Chinese saying; Amity between the people holds the key to state-to-state relations. The friendship Uganda holds with China does not stop at mere words and phrases, it has been actively put in practice with among others China working with Uganda in infrastructure development and good livelihood for Ugandan citizens.

By actions, China has shown how much they value their now 60 years partnership with Uganda. There is an Increase in the important aspect of cultural and people-people exchanges between the two countries. For example, Ugandans have benefited from China’s hundreds of degree scholarships and over 5,000 short-term training opportunities for Ugandan talent in agriculture, medical care, public administration, computer science and Infrastructure.

Bilateral relations between Uganda and China were elevated to the level of Comprehensive Cooperative Partnership in 2019, and since then there has been an increase in political mutual trust, pragmatic cooperation in many fields and the strengthening of coordination and collaboration efforts in international and regional affairs. Ambassador Zhang also declared the bilateral relationship between the countries “at their best in history,” and called upon all fields of Uganda and China to forge ahead to fulfill consensus of both their national leaders and work hand in hand to open a new chapter of “friendship, cooperation and brotherhood in the next six decades and more.” The cooperation and bilateral relationship between Uganda and China have so far yielded amazing results. In 2021, bilateral trade volume amounted to $1.07 billion which is an increase of 28.5% in spite of the hurdles caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Also in 2021, the two countries signed new engineering contracts amounting to $1.43 billion.

Additionally, many infrastructure projects are on track with the re-construction of Entebbe Airport including the building of the 10,000-square-meter cargo center that was commissioned in April and the construction of the new terminal building covering an area of 20,000 square meters also ready to go.

In energy sector, the rural electrification undertaken by Chinese company TEBA is expected to be complete around December this year and over 170,000 rural residents projected to benefit from the national power grid. If critically analyzed, the completion of 3 critical oil roads in Hoima and Masindi which is expected in October this year will leave the area well connected in terms of transportation which will ease mobility of goods and services.

China’s direct investment in Uganda is growing at a steady pace and by 2020 the stock of the investment reached $710million. This direct investment is concentrated in the fields of manufacturing, agriculture, mining, and logistics. Prominent among these is Liao Shen Industrial Park with over $400million investment and China-Mbale industrial park is expected to create 15,000 jobs opportunities with time and has currently created more than 2000. It is expected to draw over $600million in investment.

Ambasador Zhang Lizhong also highlighted a vital topic of Global development Initiative (GDI) and global Security Initiative (GSI) which were both initiated by Chinese president Xi Jinping. who holds a vision of whole humanity, with the aim of providing international products to meet the aspirations of the times, basically, peace and development with China’s wisdom and provide platforms to address the global challenges in security and development. The main target of these initiatives is to build a community for humanity with a shared future in collaboration with the Belt Road Initiative, the 2030 agenda for sustainable development, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development and Agenda 2063 of the African Union.

The extent of China’s collaboration with Uganda for the past 60 years cannot be exhausted, there has been a lot of opportunities for collaboration and there’s still more room to expand this fruitful partnership. With Uganda now working to fight poverty among citizens through Parish Development Model, aware that last year China eradicated extreme poverty, arguably, prolong and nurturing this special relationship between Uganda and China is an asset to Uganda’s road of fighting poverty. This will be a reality with Uganda learning from China which has practically embraced mutual benefit cooperation with not only Uganda but the rest of Africa and entire global south.

Moshi Israel is a Research Fellow at DWC.