The 10-member delegation, led by Busoga Consortium for Development (BCD) Director General Mr. Anthony Mula, has gained proactive skills in development after spending the past two weeks at China Agricultural University in Beijing. The team, which set off on November 4, 2024, was warmly received by Professor Lixia Tang of China Agricultural University, who was one of the primary hosts of the delegation.
The two-week study trip was packed with activities, field visits, and the sharing of experiences by Chinese professors and entrepreneurs involved in the development journey of the Asian nation.
Comprising Busoga Kingdom officials, BCD secretariat members, and agricultural entrepreneurs from the Busoga region, the delegation visited poverty reduction villages in Guangzhou and learned from China’s experiences, using them as a basis for the upcoming implementation of the Village Agricultural Model (VAM) initiative.
“We have cemented the cooperation between Jinja City and Shenyang Town, and the memorandum of understanding is now revamped,” Mr. Mula told Busoga Today after making a courtesy visit to Mr. Guo Hongyan, Vice Director of the Foreign Affairs Office of Shenyang Municipal People’s Government in Liaoning Province, China.
In Shenyang, the discussion focused on strategies to attract Chinese investors to Uganda, particularly in Jinja City.
“We want to ensure that the people of Busoga benefit from the collaboration between this Chinese town and Jinja City,” he noted, emphasizing the need to reactivate the MOU between the two cities, which has been dormant for the past four years.
Jinja City established this collaboration with Shenyang in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, which, according to Mula, could not be implemented due to restrictions on movement put in place to combat the pandemic.
According to Mula, the ties between the two cities have been strengthened, and authorities from both cities are expected to visit each other next year.
“The Mayor of Shenyang will visit Jinja City, and the Mayor of Jinja, Mr. Kasolo, will also visit Shenyang,” he stated.
The team also visited Tencent Technology Company in Shenzhen City, where they participated in a one-day skills training session and shared experiences on rural development.
Emphasizing China’s transformational story, Dr. Chen Jingjing, Director of Market Strategy at Tencent Holdings Ltd., noted that developing a bottom-up and top-down culture based on strong values of integrity, consensus, creativity, and proactiveness was key to Shenzhen and southern China’s transformation.
She encouraged the people of Busoga and Uganda to emulate this approach as a basis for progressive rural transformation.
Following the boardroom sessions, the team was given a guided tour around the company and witnessed some of the recent technological advancements developed by Tencent Co. Ltd. to keep up with the dynamic global market, particularly in ICT.
Tencent Holdings Ltd. is the developer of WeChat, the world’s leading Chinese social platform, similar to WhatsApp.
The session was also addressed by BCD Director General Mr. Anthony Mula, who reaffirmed Busoga and Uganda’s commitment to working with China as a partner for development.
Samuel Mwesigwa, a media officer at Busoga Consortium for Development, told Busoga Today that Tencent and China Agricultural University have recommitted to working together to support the implementation of the Busoga Development Agenda using the Village Agricultural Model and the Younger Entrepreneurs initiative, which was launched earlier by the Vice President of Uganda on August 19, 2024, in Namayingo District.
“The team has visited key locations to learn from China’s rural transformation strategy,” Mwesigwa said.
Uganda’s Ambassador to China, H.E. Oliver Wonekha, commended the China-Africa cooperation and mutual understanding that has strengthened the relationship between Uganda and China. She also applauded BCD for its efforts in championing development in the region.
Mr. Mwesigwa added, “Over the next five years, Busoga Consortium aims to restore Busoga’s socioeconomic standing and elevate it to middle-income status as part of Uganda’s broader transformational economic model.”
