President Yoweri Museveni has stressed the need for all minerals in the country to be processed locally instead of turning Uganda into a source of raw mineral materials
The President pointed out the NRM Government’s continued commitment to improving infrastructure in the country with a view to lowering costs of doing business especially in the area of manufacturing, transport and financial interest rates. He said that several investors seeking to process Uganda’s minerals abroad have been turned away.
“I don’t like a country like Uganda being a producer of unprocessed minerals. While we want investments, we want them to strengthen the country,” he noted. He used the meeting to ask investors to be ready to add value to Uganda’s products.
The President was speaking at the launch of the 6th phase of the PIRT meeting that took place on Thursday at State House, Entebbe. PIRT is an annual event that brings together both members of the local and international private sector players to discuss and recommend ways of improving the country’s competitiveness in the areas of agriculture, tourism, oil, gas and energy, and minerals’ value addition, among others.
Mr. Museveni commended the contribution made by participants of the Presidential Investment Round Table (PIRT) towards the planning and economic development of Uganda.
“The Presidential Investment Round Table is a very helpful forum because I get free consultancy and full information. There is no way I can say that it has not helped,” he said.
He emphasized PIRT’s contribution and cited the idea of Digital Identification that has helped in identifying loan defaulters, among other beneficial uses of the project.
Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda said that 90% of the decisions made during the 2017 PIRT meeting have been implemented. He cited tourism, which has seen the number of tourists go up from 215,558 to 325,345 in. He also noted that revenue collection in the National Parks has increased from Shs.45 billion to Shs.85 billion in the same period. He further revealed that infrastructure in National Parks has been improved.
PIRT Consultant, Baroness Lynda Chalker noted that the 6th PIRT meeting aims at exchanging ideas that can improve services of various sectors both in private and government domains.