President Museveni has told European businessmen that they need little or no thought at all investing in Uganda.
“European businesses coming to invest in Uganda is common sense and good strategy.Business means an enterprise that makes profit. It is what business is all about. The higher profit, the better. Therefore, when talking about businesses you need to look at the level of profitability of businesses in this part of the world compared to Europe, Asia and other investment destinations,” Museveni said.
The president was on Wednesday addressing the Uganda-European Union business forum at Speke Resort hotel in Munyonyo.
Mounting a charm offensive for European investors , Museveni said the return on investment in Uganda is high compared to other destinations.
He also mentioned good infrastructure in terms of transport, electricity and telecommunication in Uganda as other incentives for investing in Uganda.
The president however warned European countries against mixing politics with business which he said is wrong.
“As business people, you can pursue business but political actors need to know that global affluence will give good business to everybody in the world. Therefore, business people should be the one to push political actors to wake up and stop wasting our opportunities. Don’t bring your ideas to waste our time because this has been the mistake for a very long time. It is responsible for the problem in Israel between Jews and Arabs which was made worse by the Romans. You cant control the world politically,” he said.
“I buy your product because I need it. Don’t try to impose any of your thinking on me. I know how to think and if anything is right , I will see it myself. The Bible says let your light shine so good that the people will see the good deeds and praise your father in heaven. Influence people by example. If you think you are right, do-good things and people will admire you because of your example but not bringing politics.”
The European Union Ambassador to Uganda, Jan Sadek said trade and investments between Uganda and European Union have been improved year by year.
“ When you look at statistics, there is doubling of Ugandan exports since 2020 and the EU’s share of foreign direct investments in Uganda was a year ago more than 40% or more than shs5 trillion. I would want to believe that these business forums have contributed somewhat to these impressive figures,” Sadek said.
“On the trade side, we had a very health turnover on the Ugandan side worth shs6.2trillion and I congratulate Uganda because for more than a year, the country had a positive trade balance with European Union. In 2022, Uganda exported goods worth 800 million Euros to the European Union but imported goods for worth 700 million Euros. This is very different for Uganda’s trade with other global partners where the imports dominate.”
The three day Uganda-EU business forum will end tomorrow, Thursday.
