The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
By Julius Businge
The ministry of trade, Industry and cooperatives has started registration of all foreign traders in the Greater Kampala (Kampala Capital City Authority, Mukono and Wakiso districts), the ministry announced in a local news paper on Dec. 5.
“The ministry has received persistent complaints from the business community concerning the influx of foreigners in petty trade. The government has adopted a multi-sectoral and inter-ministerial approach to address this issue,” the ministry said.
In accordance with legal provisions under sections 5, 8, 29 of trade licensing Act Cap 101, Section 54 of the Uganda Citizenship and Immigration control Act and sections 10 to 16 of the Investment Code Act, I am calling upon all foreigners doing trade in greater Kampala to report to the ministry for verification and registration,” Trade minister, Amelia Kyambadde said, adding the exercise will be conducted from Dec.5 to 19, 2012 at the ministry head offices in Kampala.
The minster warned that failure to attend this registration exercise will lead top cancellation of the licenses in accordance with the aforementioned legislations. After the registration, the minister said, a physical verification exercise to ascertain the authenticity of the information will be conducted.
Ugandan traders have been complaining about foreigners who enter the country pretending to be potential investors but turnout to be petty traders, competing for space and the market in retail business.
In an exclusive interview with The Independent on August 9, Zou Xiaoming, the counsellor at the Economic and Commercial Counsellor’s Office at the Chinese Embassy in Uganda urged his fellow Chinese in Uganda to invest in huge projects say infrastructure, construction, manufacturing, farming among others instead of doing petty businesses.
“We don’t want to compete with local business people in retail business because we know they don’t have enough capital,” Xiaoming said.
