200806291837 | President Museveni opens EAC investment

President Museveni opens EAC investment

President Yoweri Museveni who is the Chairman of the summit of the East African Community Heads of State opened the first East African Investment Conference with a call to delegates to brain storm and identify areas that need to be addressed in order to improve the investment climate in the region, according to Uganda Media Centre.

The two-day conference that attracted over 800 participants from within and outside East Africa was running under the theme “leveraging the East African Market through Trade and Investment” and is held at Serena Hotel Kigali, Rwanda.

The aim of the summit is to enhance engagement with the business community which will lead to increased trade and investment in the region.

While referring to the biblical rich man who wanted to know how he could enter the Kingdom of God. President Yoweri Museveni pointed out that the people of East Africa need to address what he described as the 11 economic commandments in order to enter the Kingdom of prosperity. The President named the commandments as Security for both the people as well as investment, improvement of infrastructure like roads, rail, electricity, information communication technology (ICT) under sea cable, and piped water in urban areas.

The President who apologized to the business community for the past mistakes especially in the area of power generation and the construction of roads, assured them that those mistakes would never be repeated again. He said that Uganda will or without external assistance build hydro-power dams. He told delegates that Uganda has already set up an energy fund that has US$215 million and the construction of Bujagali power dam has already started and will on completion provide 250 megawatts.

President Museveni informed participants that the same will be done on roads where the government has earmarked 1.1 trillion shillings for construction and improvement of roads in the country. The President, however, expressed need for the East African countries to jointly work on the improvement of the railway line that needs to be upgraded from the current narrow gauge of 1metre to 1.5metres to enable the train move faster between Mombasa, Kampala to Dar-es-Salaam.

The President told delegates at the Kigali conference to take advantage of the international markets now available in the USA, European Union, China, India and Japan by prioritizing and promoting the processing capacity. He told them that Uganda has already embarked on value addition of products such as milk among others and is now being exported to other countries.

President Museveni while enumerating the 11 commandments of entering the kingdom of prosperity also named the liberalization of investment, convertible currencies where there is no exchange control as well as expeditious commercial justice.

Addressing the same conference President Mwai Kibaki of the Republic of Kenya invited investors in the region to invest in Kenya as his government together with partners have resolved all the setbacks experienced in the country early this year and is now addressing challenges faced by the people of Kenya. He assured them that Kenya is now safe and investment secure.

President Pierre Nkurunziza of the Republic of Burundi announced that his country is emerging from the political turmoil and is today building peace and the economy. He informed the business community that Burundi had a lot of potential in areas of agriculture, tourism, energy and mining. He therefore, called on them to take up the opportunity and invest in Burundi.

The host, President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, warmly welcomed all his guests to Rwanda and emphasized the need to prioritize the infrastructure strategy in order to implement the goals geared at boasting the economy of the region and improving the lives of the people in the area. The Rwandan leader however concurred with President Musevei on the substandard construction of roads in the region saying that not only was their life span shortened and unacceptable but their width has also been reducing at an alarming rate from 6metres to 5 or 4metres.

Other speakers included the Chairperson of the East African Council of Ministers, Mr. Eriya Kategaya, the Secretary General of the East African Community, Ambassador Juma Mwapachu, the Minister of Trade and Industry of Rwanda, Ms Monique Nsanabaganwa and the Secretary General of the Commonwealth Business Council, Mr. Mohan Khol who pledged his council’s support to EAC to strengthen her economic development.

Other delegates from Uganda attending the conference include, the Minister of Energy and Minerals, Mr. Daudi Migereko, the Minister of Information Communication Technology (ICT), Dr. Ham Muliira, the Minister of Works and Housing, Eng. John Nasasira, the Minister of State for Investment, Prof. Semakula Kiwanuka and the Executive Director of Uganda Investment Authority, Dr. Maggie Kigozi.