President Yoweri Museveni has cautioned Ugandans especially policy makers against frustrating and wasting time of investors, explaining that they are very vital in building the economy of the country.
This warning came in after Col. Edith Nakalema the head of State House Investor Protection Unit revealed to journalists that majority of investors have complained to them about bureaucracy and delays in different government offices.
“You Ugandans should welcome Foreign Direct Investment, don’t waste their time and also don’t talk in your confusing language that “the factory of an Indian”, there’s no Indian factory here, all the factories here are Ugandan regardless of who builds it,” The President noted.
The President made these remarks while officiating at the ongoing Uganda- United Arab Emirates (UAE) Investment and Business Forum in Kampala on Wednesday.
In this meeting the president also wooed foreign investors to invest in Uganda, saying that the East African country has a lot of investment opportunities with a readily available market.
“Uganda has a big market consisting of 46 million Ugandans and 300 million East Africans as well as that of 1.5 billion Africans which African countries are currently working on under the Continental Free Trade Area, so when you are here, you produce a good or a service and you will be assured of the market,” he explained.
President Museveni on the other hand told the investors Uganda is soon starting to produce lithium car batteries for their electric cars which are already in production.
“All this time we have been begging these Europeans to assemble cars here, they wouldn’t listen but now they have lost that opportunity and we are now going to make our own cars. I don’t want to hear assembling of vehicles here, it’s too late,” he expounded.
In her remarks, the Minister of State for Investment and Privatisation, Hon. Evelyn Anite thanked President Museveni for strengthening the cooperation between Uganda and UAE, from just diplomatic to commercial and economic relationship.
“Today, the exports of Uganda to UAE have increased by 37.8 percent. Uganda’s export to the UAE now stands at USD1.4 billion. The Foreign Direct Investment stands at USD3 billion,” she stressed.
The Ambassador of Uganda to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), H.E Kibedi Zaake elucidated that due to President Museveni’s continuous engagements with the investors in UAE, the Foreign Direct Investment has managed to grow from USD1 billion to USD3 billion.
“Your Excellency, by the time you came for the Dubai expo 2020, the Foreign Direct Investment from UAE to Uganda was at USD1 billion but after the engagements you held with the President of UAE and some of the rulers, the FDI grew by three-fold this year, it has now come to USD3 billion,” he highlighted.
The leader of the delegation from UAE, Mr. Rashid Karim revealed that in UAE they are looking for a sustainable growth of their economy based on knowledge and innovations and that is why they are working with countries like Uganda to discover such opportunities.
“What we expect from the forum is that we want to attract and increase the FDI because we believe that a successful business cannot happen unless there’s facilitation on both sides. We also want to promote knowledge transfer for both our countries,” he said.
The event was also attended by the Consul General of Uganda’s Consulate in Dubai, H.E Henry Mayega, Officials from Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) and Private Sector Foundation Uganda, among others.