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Uganda should develop a smart industrial policy that looks at opportunities and strengths of the economy and the benefits from regional integration.
Rodgers Mukwaya, an economic affairs officer for the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), while commenting on Uganda’s industrial policy quest, cited the example of Malaysia, which targeted the electric and electronics sector, Ethiopia with the leather and garment sector and Rwanda with ICT-based services and tourism.
Mukwaya advised Uganda policy makers to inspire themselves from successful industrial policy experiences and to defy conventional wisdom.
“If South Korea had listened to experts in the late 1950s and 1960s, it would still be manufacturing shoes, not plasma screens, automobiles, and mobile phones,” he said.
Mukwaya was part of a team that produced a report titled, Transformative Industrial Policy for Africa 2016, that was launched in Kampala.
The report highlights the opportunity of developing productivity in the agro-processing industry and the agricultural sector in Uganda, which still employs 72% of the working population.