Museveni woos Arab investors to Uganda, says “we have the raw materials, human resource and market”
President Yoweri Museveni used his time at the sidelines of the ongoing 4th Global Business Forum on Africa to reach out to various investors based in Dubai, urging them to exploit the great investment opportunities Uganda and the region offer to do business with the continent.
“Since you are business people, we must be talking about profits. When you talk of Uganda and Africa, you are talking about peace as an enabling environment; which we have. We have raw materials and have a population of 40 million people that’s’ a market. And if we talk of integration we have a four tear market,” the President said at a meeting he held at his residence at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Dubai.
The President said the four-tier market includes that of Uganda, East Africa, COMESA with a combined market of 600million people and the whole of Africa with a market of 1.3 billion people.
“In Africa, the demand is there and growing because we have been under-consuming while the rest of the world the demand is falling because they have been overconsuming,” he said.
Museveni was yesterday meeting various UAE investors and CEOs of leading companies including America’s Business Council based in Dubai, Emerson with interest in Oil and Gas, Ernest and Young, Norton Rose Fulbright among others.
President Museveni encouraged them to invest in Uganda citing Peace and stability, infrastructure development especially electricity, roads, and railway lines which he said it is a stimuli for investments.
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“There are plenty of raw materials, minerals, tourism and so on so when you invest there you have access to all these” he added.
The President said investors enjoy a number of policy incentives such as tax holidays, VAT incentives among others.
“I don’t have to bother investors with taxes, what I want is for them to invest, use our raw materials, create jobs, add value and promote exports,” he said.
The business group expressed interests in investing in Uganda especially in areas of Oil and Gas, Agro-processing, Tourism among others.
The President was accompanied by Uganda’s Energy Minister Hon. Eng. Irene Muloni, that of Tourism Ephraim Kamuntu, State Minister for Investment and Privatization, Hon. Anite Evelyn and Ambassador Nimisha Madhvani among others.