Tayebwa asks German MPs to woo investors to Uganda

The Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Thomas Tayebwa has asked legislators from Germany to interest their investors to set up shop in Uganda.

Tayebwa told a delegation from the Bundestag (Germany’s National Assembly) led by Hon. Stefan Rouenhoff, who represents the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, that the country has vast potential for investment.

“We do need to see more, especially in the plan to build more industrial parks; Uganda supplies DRC, South Sudan and Rwanda. We are land locked as we used to study in geography but now we changed from being landlocked to being a ‘land linked’ country,” Tayebwa said.

Tayebwa said since the advent of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) government in 1986, emphasis has been on creating an investment-friendly environment through ensuring peace and security, stabilizing the Uganda shilling and offering attractive incentives to investors.

The Deputy Speaker told the German legislators whom he led on a guided tour of the Parliament building that there is abundance of investment opportunities in agro-processing, value addition to minerals, oil and gas as well as infrastructure such as construction of the railway.

He urged development partners to review the conditions of concessional loans   offered to African countries adding that the Chinese have become a better option especially in infrastructure development because of their flexible terms.

“The Chinese investments are doing extremely well not only in Uganda but across Africa; it is a situation we had to face and make choices because of the condition of the loans that were coming from the western world. The western world wasn’t ready to venture into investing in the projects,” he said.

He added that, “we do believe that if you are giving me money, I am going to pay back; so why tag in so much that is not going to contribute to the pay back of this money?  As Africa, we have to be very conscious so that we don’t go into a debt trap much as we want to transform our economy”.

Tayebwa commended the German government for the good bilateral relations with Uganda.