President Museveni has praised tycoon Sudhir Ruparelia and the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) Engineering Brigade, after the country successfully hosted two big international summits with both parties playing a key role in delivering key infrastructure projects ahead of the events.
Presiding over the luncheon hosted to commend the government Organising Committee headed by Ms Lucy Nakyobe, Head of Public Service, at State House Entebbe on Wednesday, January 31, Museveni thanked Ugandans for the discipline they displayed as the country hosted the two international summits;- the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and G-77 plus China.
He said: “I thank all the people who worked with Lucy Nakyobe and Adonia Ayebare to deliver this success and ask that the momentum be kept so that, during our tenure, Uganda shall deliver, not only good summits but good content to the world”.
Mr. Museveni says the success of the two summits attests to the clear NRM ideology that encompasses core practices, including vision, ideology, patriotism, and prioritisation.
In glowing tribute to Mr. Ruparelia, chairman of the Ugandan conglomerate Ruparelia Group, the President added;
“A few examples are; Sudhir who wouldn’t be here if we didn’t reject Amin’s ideological bankruptcy and the Engineering Brigade of UPDF wouldn’t have saved us Shs 130 billion on the airport expansion and facelift”.
Earlier in his address on the eve of the NRM Day Celebrations in Jinja last week, Mr. Museveni had singled out the UPDF Engineering Brigade which built the new passenger terminal at Entebbe International Airport and tycoon Ruparelia, whose company put together the construction of the world class conference facility — the Speke Resort Convention Centre at Munyonyo in record time.
It took Mr. Sudhir’s group of companies, the Ruparelia Group one year and two days to complete the facility.
On the other hand, the UPDF Engineering Brigade took over the construction of the terminal at the airport, worked day and night, and delivered on record time.
President Museveni, who also praised Ugandans for welcoming the visitors warmly said:
“There were 1918 delegates from 129 Countries, Sixteen Presidents, nine Vice Presidents, sixteen Prime Ministers, seven Special category, coming into Uganda by Airlines and 32 private jets,” he said, adding.
“I thank the Ugandans for the discipline in receiving these visitors. These Countries have 6.6 billion people-80% of the human race”.
On the magnificent facilities, he said:
“More importantly, look at the facilities we built partly for this occasion but in order to improve the infrastructure of the Country – some of them built in one year. Look at the New Terminal built by the UPDF Engineering Brigade, and the Conference Centre built by Sudhir’s [Ruparelia] Company,” he said.
“There is nothing we cannot do. It is just a question of prioritization. Some people always talk about the potholes of Kampala. They should also talk about the good up – Country roads – from Kisoro to Nimule, Busia-Busuunga in Bundibugyo. Without corruption, we have the capacity to do everything. I have instructed the Engineering Brigade to start preparing to build the Standard Gauge Railway instead of only waiting for outsiders to do it,” Museveni added.
