Museveni woos Chinese investors
Arrival. The Chinese Vice Premier, HE Hu Chunchua, receives President Museveni at the Multi-functional Hall, Jiusuo Hotel in Changsha capital in Hunan Province of China on Wednesday. PPU Photo
What you need to know:
- Priority. President Museveni raised 12 areas of cooperation with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.
Kampala. President Museveni has said leaders must understand that partnerships around trade facilitation will ensure global prosperity of nations.
He said mutual support around trade must include infrastructure development such as roads, railway, electricity, ICT backbone, and trained man-power.
“We need to cooperate in those areas so that trade is visible. The Province of Hunan is talking about industrial parks, I encourage that discussion so that the private sector in China can invest in Uganda using our framework of cooperation to produce goods and services to sell in Uganda, Africa and China.
“By doing so, you will be contributing to each other’s prosperity by creating jobs, expanding our tax base for revenue and using our raw materials,” Mr Museveni said.
In the State House statement sent yesterday, the President made the remarks while meeting the Vice Premier of China, Mr Hu Chunhua, at the multi-purpose function hall, Jiusuo Hotel in Changsha, Hunan Province in China.
The President is in Hunan Province on a two-day working visit during which he will officially open the China-Africa Economic and Trade expo and also give a keynote address on the theme Win-win cooperation for closer China-Africa economic and trade partnership.
Mr Museveni said he raised 12 areas of cooperation with President Xi Jinping including the standard gauge railway, oil and tourism roads, industrial parks, irrigation for agricultural production, sports stadiums, markets access, defence cooperation and party cooperation, among other things.
They also agreed to bring these aspirations to high levels as comprehensive partners.
According to Premier Hu, trade between China and Africa is crucial for nations to grow because it has grown to more than $30 billion in the last twenty years.
He said the Chinese government is willing to encourage private investments in Africa and East Africa especially in industrial parks, adding that they have already invested close to $3.4 billion in Uganda alone.
“We shall work together on infrastructure development. We are glad that you have attended all the three FOCAC summits and we appreciate the participation. We are glad that Uganda has confirmed participation in the economic summit in Shangai in November,” he said.
