By David Rupiny
The Vice President of Uganda, Jessica Alupo, has hailed the Sino-Uganda Mbale Industrial Park in eastern Uganda as a success and significantly contributing to the realization of the country’s agenda of industrialization, import substitution, and export promotion.
Opening the inaugural Mbale Industrial Park’s Made-in-Uganda Trade Show and Bazaar, the Vice President, expressed happiness that she was witnessing first-hand the developments in the industrial park, a public-private arrangement between the Ugandan government and a locally based Chinese conglomerate, Tian Tang Group.
The Ugandan government offered the land to the anchor investor who in turn scouts and brings other investors to set up factories manufacturing products that have normally been imported. In addition, most of the factories are adding value to local raw materials. Collectively, they employ over 6,000 Ugandans, mainly young people.
“I’m happy to see products we used to import are being made here and are also being exported to neighbouring countries in the East African region,” said Alupo, who was accompanied by four State Ministers: Evelyn Anite (Privatisation and Investment), David Bahati (Trade and Industry), Opolot Okaasai (Energy) and Florence Wamala Namboozo (Karamoja Affairs).
The trade show and bazaar, showcasing various products – from textiles to electronics from 51 factories in the industrial park – runs from October 18 to 19, 2024, and is open to the public.
Vice President Alupo said Mbale Industrial Park and other industrial initiatives being driven by the Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) is leading to a strategic reversal of the previous trend when Uganda used to be known as “the supermarket of the world”.
She said there is a clear actualization of Uganda’s policies on boosting industrial growth and development, creating jobs and improving incomes, reducing imports, and boosting exports.
The Vice President thanked President Yoweri Museveni, the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, the Uganda Investment Authority, and other stakeholders (including local leaders) for ensuring the investors receive all necessary support since the establishment of the industrial park in 2018.
Vice President Alupo said the developments in Mbale Industrial Park and other industrial parks should remind Ugandans that industrialization and transformation of the country are possible if, as she put it, “we heeded President Yoweri Museveni’s economic gospel and work harder and together to transform our economy”.
She promised that a few challenges related to power supply, flash floods, and some taxes would be dealt with.
The Vice President thanked “our strategic partners from China” for investing in Uganda, noting that the country values the long bilateral relations between the two countries undergirded by “mutual respect, respect, and brotherhood”.
The Investment Minister, Evelyn Anite, said: “What we are seeing in Mbale Industrial Park is just the beginning. We will have more industrial products being produced locally by both foreign and domestic investors, including young people”.
The State Minister of Trade and Industry, David Bahati, said Uganda now has over 8,000 factories registered with the Uganda National Bureau of Standards and counting, up from just 83 in 1986.
Minister Bahati said the manufacturing sector contributes 16.5 percent of GDP of 55 billion dollars, with a target of 45 percent of GDP when Uganda achieves the 10-fold GDP goal of 500 billion dollars in 10 years. He said central to that achievement is the growth and development of industrial parks.
“We are not only industrializing but actually realizing our policy of import substitution and export promotion,” said Bahati, adding that “we shall support investors who add value to local raw materials”.
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