Local CSOs want NDPIII to focus on boosting domestic trade

By George Mangula

The Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) have asked the government to consider having the new National Development Plan (NDP) III focus on boosting internal trade in Uganda.

The state minister for Finance and Economic Planning, David Bahati, tabled budget strategy for financial year 2020/2021 where government plans to spend Shs39.6 trillion in the financial year 2020/2021 and it will be anchored on the medium-term growth and development objectives of the National Development plan III, under the theme Industrialization for job creation and shared Prosperity.

However, speaking during the CSO pre-budget dialogue for the financial year 2020/2021, under the theme, FY 2020/21 strategies for public investment and inclusive growth, the CSOs under their Group the Civil Society Budget Group (CSBAG) urged the government to focus more on promoting the local market for increased employment opportunities and economic growth. “We are a very poor country and we can only get out of it if we trade among ourselves. I’m hoping that in NDP III, we ensure that we boost our internal trade,” said Julius Mukunda, the Executive Director CSBAG.

For proper implementation of the plan, Mukunda also urged the government to consider putting politics aside if its implementation is to be successful. He said; “If we don’t take politics out of planning, then we are having serious issues, take an example of the plan to procure one million hoes when the budget talks about industrialization”.

In a panel discussion with Dr. Asuman Golooba, member of the National Planning Authority (NPA), Stephen Mukitale, the MP Buliisa County, Mukunda, who was joined Jane Nalunga, a member of CSBAG from SEATINI, the CSOs noted the need by government to set clear goals for economic growth in the next five years of NDP III. “We need to set goals about what we want to achieve as a country in the next five years and that means setting up the infrastructure that will help us achieve those goals,”said Nalunga, Country Director SEATINI Uganda.

According to Nalunga, the government needs to take center stage in ensuring economic growth not leaves it only to the private sector. She also implored the government to negotiate markets for Ugandan markets at both local and international platforms. 

“When you look at NDP III, it is a big step in rethinking about the role of government in development. We need to trade starting from domestic market then to regional trade, there is no free market. We need to negotiate for our markets,” she said.

 In response however, Golooba said despite trade being important, one needs to look at the entire value chain. “We are saying that the private sector is important but it needs government support. So we ate making sure that where private sector cannot reach, Government comes in to help,” Golooba said. 

The CSOs also highlighted corruption as one of the cancers still affecting the country, where public resources for service delivery are abused. “We get so little but the outflow in corruption, IFFs and tax exemptions is so much, if our national budget is the bucket, the top would be small and the bottom be huge. We need to see how we unplug the outflows,” said Nalunga.

MP Mukitale, the former chairperson of the Parliament’s committee on National economy, urged the government to check the procurement sector, where most of the corruption he said takes place.