CAPTION: MPs and UIA Officials at the Lagan Dott Namanve Limited site at KIBP.
Kampala, Uganda: Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Finance Hon. Henry Musasizi has hailed Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) for the successful fulfilment of its mandate of developing Industrial and Business Parks in the country.
“We are glad that there is action being taken in regard to your mandate of developing industrial and business parks, you have reported to us on how the projects are progressing, at least now we know and we have seen, the Investment Code Act (amended 2019) mandates you to especially promote investments and facilitate investors, you cannot achieve this in the boardroom and you have proved this,” he said.
He made the remarks during a meeting of the committee members and the Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) held at the Kampala Industrial and Business Park (KIBP) offices at Namanve.
The MPs visited UIA to assess the progress on the implementation of the KIBP Infrastructure project and the overall progress on the developing of Industrial and Business Parks in the country.
“We want to see more results from the parks such as many Ugandans getting jobs, many products for selling locally and for export,” Hon Musasisizi added.
However, Mr. Hamza Galiwango, the Director for Industrial and Business Parks Development division at the Uganda Investment Authority informed the MPs that the Authority has drawn a new strategic plan for the years 2020/2021-2024/25 whose implementation is expected to result in creation of direct and indirect 650,000 jobs by the year 2025.
He explained that the 413 investors have so far created about 45,000 direct jobs and 180,000 indirect jobs along the value chains in the operational parks with a total investment of USD 3.5Billion.
Mr. Galiwango added that the same investors have also effected technology transfer and skills upgrade for Ugandans, introduced new technologies such as Quality Chemicals Single HIV Pill, Roofings Rebar plant, Plascon anti-malarial paint, Orion GIS transformers among others.
“The objective of developing these parks is to create jobs, ease accessibility of land for investments, introduce new research technologies and skills development as well as boost Uganda’s exports and therefore increase Uganda’s revenue base,” he said adding that the strategic plan highlights Uganda’s accelerated industrialization strategy through Industrial Parks Development and one of the targets is to create 650,000 jobs and increased import substitution,” he said.
Already, UIA has established nine public industrial parks across the country in the following locations: Namanve, Bweyogerere, Luzira, Kasese, Mbarara SME, Jinja, Mbale, Soroti and Karamoja and supports 5 private industrial parks in Kapeeka, Lugazi, Buikwe and Mukono.
“Ultimately, Industrial parks are targeted as a vehicle for making Uganda the leading regional exporter in high value markets,” he said.
UIA Acting Director General Mr. Lawrence Byensi pointed out that investors in these industrial parks are engaged in agro processing that include coffee, cotton, steel products, beverages, transformers, ICT and Business Process Outsourcing, veterinary drugs, packaging materials, pharmaceutical products, human drugs, furniture products, paper products, animal feeds, nutritional feeds, leather and tarpaulin among others.
“In addition, a number of regional industrial and business parks are being developed for similar projects and this is in line with the Vision 2040 and the National Development Plan (NDP) III (2021-2025) which emphasize industrialization as the key pillar to employment creation and achieving middle income status,” Mr. Byensi noted..