A business delegation from the Emirate of Sharjah kicked off today(Monday)a business visit to Uganda and Kenya until December 3.  The visit, which is organized by the Sharjah Exports Development Center (SEDC) of the Sharjah Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SCCI), comes in line with the chamber’s strategy in expansion and consolidation its presence in promising African markets.   
The delegation’s visit to Uganda, first, aims at boosting competitiveness in the business sector and elevating the levels of tourist, investment and commercial cooperation between the Emirate of Sharjah and both countries, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Uganda, and taking such mutual cooperation forward to further development and prosperity.  
The delegation, which comprises two SCCI board members Mohammed Rashid Dimas, Nasser Mosbeh Al Tunaiji, and Abdulaziz Shattaf Director of SEDC, in addition to staff members from SCCI, SEDC Sharjah Investment & Development Authority (Shurooq) and executive directors of 15 business entities ranging from industrial and production to export.
H.E. Abdullah Sultan Al Owais Chairman of SCCI said: “Having a new SCCI delegation to visit both Uganda and Kenya comes within the framework of the chamber’s interest to continue consolidating and exploring promising opportunities in emerging African markets.  This helps UAE national companies and investors in building mutual cooperation and partnership relationships with their counterparts in various African countries and this will be reflected in boosting their exports and expanding their business domains to new geographical regions.” 
Al Owais added: “SCCI exerts efforts to open new doors for its members into various international marketsthrough its keenness in sending scholarships and external delegations, and organizing global forums and meetings.”  He pointed “such role does not get completed without the investors’ direct initiatives in counting on the kind of efforts SCCI dedicates and catching the fruits of such abroad visits that comprise various forms of understandings, meetings, dialogues, and vitally important discussions, in order to reach strategic partnerships for the future serving all involved sides.”  
Al Owais stressed: “Through this commercial delegation, SCCI looks forward to building on what the first delegation has done in the previous year, to continue in the development and consolidation of relations and partnerships and form channels of communications between Sharjah’s business sector and its Ugandan and Kenyan counterparts.”  
He pointed out that the delegation’s visit program is full with scheduled meetings with senior representatives from economic bodies, commercial chambers, development centers, investment promotion authorities and all concerned parties from both countries, especially in the energy, agriculture, livestock, real estate, pharmaceutical & health care, tourism, telecommunications and transport sectors.  
During the six-day visit, the delegation will give insightful information on the economic advantages Sharjah possesses, helping to promoting the facilities that the emirate offers to foreign investors to empower them in launching their businesses and investments in free zones and airports. 
Also, the delegation will explain on the advanced infrastructure, logistics, motivating legislations and incentives offered by Sharjah, along with its strategic location, being at the center of the UAE’s emirates and inflow outlet for Kenyan investments in the region’s markets.    
Non-oil trade volume between the UAE and Uganda has been estimated to have reached AED 555 million (US$ 151 million) during 2015 that comprised mostly of raw materials and food items.  Uganda’s natural resources, especially those of agriculture and food processing industries, provide qualitative opportunities for Emirati investments that would serve the UAE’s objectives in food security.  Also, Uganda is considered one of those promising African countries where the country’s GDP has been sustaining a 5.4% rate in recent years.  For Kenya, trade volume reached AED 3 billion (US$ 821 million) with the UAE.  The Kenyan Government has set various legislations toward attracting investments and so investors.