Museveni to Sri Lanka: We need investors

Kampala

President Museveni, who is on a three-day State visit to Sri Lanka at the invitation of his counterpart President Mahinda Rajapakasa, has told a business meeting in Colombo, capital of Sri Lanka, that Uganda needs real investors with money to develop her economic potential.

A statement released from State House last evening indicated that while addressing the Sri Lanka Export Development Board yesterday, Mr Museveni said: “We want people with money. We have enough poor people at home.”

The President, who was accompanied by his wife, Janet, who is also Minister for Karamoja Affairs, told the meeting that modern business is based on money generating projects in order to benefit both parties.

He added: “We want to build our mutual understanding on money. You will make money in Uganda; we shall also make money from your investment if we get real investors.”
Mr Museveni was earlier treated to an official welcoming ceremony at the Presidential Secretariat.

At the conclusion of the receiving ceremonies, Mr Museveni met Mr Rajapakasa with whom he discussed bilateral and regional issues. The two countries also signed a number of protocols covering trade, commercial and technical co-operation, tourism and culture as well as political cooperation.

Potential
The President briefed the Sri Lankan business meeting that Uganda commands a big economic potential. He explained that the country needs investors in agro-processing such as maize grain milling at a large scale, mineral exploitation, sugar production and infrastructure development. He told the meeting that Uganda has enough market and conducive environment with constant rainfall.

“In Uganda, investors will access the East African market, the AGOA arrangement to export to the US quota and tax free that also applies to other markets in India, Europe and China. You can easily make money in Uganda because production is at low cost”, he pointed out.

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