Trade, Industry and Cooperatives Sector Development Plan (2015/16 – 2019/20).

This Trade, Industry and Cooperatives Sector Development Plan (TIC-SDP) is the second nationwide multi-sectoral document and it has been designed in the context of the Uganda Vision 2040 and the National Development Plan II and it broadly aims to significantly increase the contribution of the country’s Trade, Industry and Cooperative Sector to economic development, and reducing the widening trade deficit. The development envisaged by the Plan concerns the following areas (i) trade; (ii) industry; (iii) cooperatives; (iv) administration. In particular, the Trade, Industry and Cooperatives sector shall pursue the following strategic objectives in the five years between 2015 and 2020 (i) increase the share of manufactured goods and services in total exports; (ii) improve private sector competitiveness; (iii) increase market access for Uganda’s products and services in regional and international market; (iv) improve trade infrastructure; (v) promote the development of value added industries in agriculture and minerals; (vi) increase the productive capabilities for goods and services; (vii) promote the use of research, innovation and applied technology; (viii) promote green industry and climate smart industrial initiatives; (ix) promote the formation and growth of cooperatives and enhance their capacity to compete in domestic, regional and international markets; (x) increase the diversification of enterprises undertaken by cooperatives; (xi) enhance public administration and management; (xii) strengthen sector institutional infrastructure.
The Plan aims at eradicating poverty through commercialization of agriculture, provision of rural finance, improved market access, employment creation and industrialization.
To enhance more inclusive and efficient agricultural and food systems, the provided actions are (i) incentivize export of processed products and promote effective positioning of Uganda’s products and services in international markets; (ii) promote the consumption of local goods and services and facilitate the Development of locally manufactured goods through supporting MSMEs, especially MSMIs; (iii) develop and implement a national trade information system; (iv) negotiate better market access for Ugandan goods and services; (v) promote commercial representation at Uganda’s Missions and Embassies abroad; (vi) enhance branding of products and services; (vii) establish silos and warehouses in strategic locations across the country; (viii) develop agro-processing zones within the existing 22 industrial parks; (ix) strengthen the cooperative commodity marketing infrastructure, also through the establishment of an Agricultural Commodity Marketing Fund to promote collective marketing; (x) strengthen the Cooperatives Information systems; (xi) support and facilitate cooperative society members to acquire mechanization, irrigation equipment, farm level post-harvest handling technologies and other appropriate technologies.
The resilience of livelihoods to disasters will be increased through (i) research and development of zero waste technologies and practices; (ii) climate innovation centers to support investment in industries producing and adopting green technologies; (iii) decentralized village-based agricultural processing centers that incorporate low-carbon sources of energy, such as biogas-digesters and solar driers; (iv) building carbon trading capacity within the private sector to harness innovative funding opportunities provided by Clean Development Mechanisms (CDM) and voluntary carbon markets.
As for Governance it is necessary to (i) ensure and strengthen proper Public Financial Management Systems; (ii) strengthen the institutional capacity of Ministry and Agencies to independently undertake their constitutional mandates effectively and efficiently; (iii) improve communication and public relations within and outside the sector; (iv) improve efficient and effective allocation and utilization of physical resources and logistics to support sector institutional operations; (v) revitalize the sector working group and its related organs. The document adds an implementation strategy and the financing strategy including the various financing modalities, sources and options, the roles and responsibilities expected of the different key players at various levels, their expected contributions, and finally the annualized cost implementation matrix.