Ugandan businesses should participate in a technical seminar in Kampala in mid-March to prepare to benefit from the AGOA trade scheme, Uganda's ambassador to the United States told The Monitor.

Ambassador Edith Ssempala said "I have never been as excited as I am now that Uganda will be benefiting" from the African Growth and Opportunities Act, which eliminated restrictive trade duties on textiles, fish, and many other goods.

While Uganda still has not established a deal with U.S. textile companies to import Ugandan textiles, Ssempala said she is very close with one or two companies. At least one of these will be participating in the seminar.

She would not name the companies to The Monitor, saying "I can't start negotiating in the media." However, she added that some samples of cotton shipped by the Kaswada Phoenix International

firm were sampled by the U.S. companies interested in a deal with Uganda, and "they thought the quality was good. Of course, their interest would be if the quantity could also be good." She pointed out that U.S. companies will be making big orders and need companies with big capacity to fill them.

While AGOA covers more than just textiles, including fish and leather, "I see the textile industry as our entry point into industrialization in Uganda," Ssempala said. "That is really what excites me. It can act as a stimulus to other sectors."

"We are talking about revolutionizing our cotton, textile apparel industry," Ssempala said. "We might be employing thousands of people. That is really exciting."

A future area of export growth for Uganda that excites Ssempala is cut flowers.