Mbale park to create 15,000 jobs - Museveni

Mbale Industrial Park will create 15,000 jobs, President Museveni has said.
The President made the remarks while commissioning four factories at the park in Mbale Town on Thursday.
The commissioned parks include Pearlight Technology, which manufactures bulbs and Ubon Technology which producing washing powder.
Others are Victoria Cable Limited that manufactures cables and Kyoga Capital Texttile Limited that produces stockings.
The industrial park, with a total investment of more than $600m (about Shs2.2 trillion), is expected to house more than 50 factories.
The park that was commissioned by President Museveni in 2018 as part of the industrialisation agenda, is being developed by Tien Tang Group.
A total of 22 industrial parks will be established countrywide under the initiative.
President Museveni said: “The completed factories are employing more than 800 youth.”
However, the President urged Ugandans to stop relying on agriculture if they are to alleviate household poverty.
“Agriculture brings us food, which is alright but there are other needs such as medicine, soap, among others, which cannot come from agriculture. So you cannot say we rely on only agriculture,” he said.
The President said the National Resistance Movement (NRM) party values industrialisation because it has potential to cause economic growth and development.
“This industrial park is sitting on 600 acres. If you grow cassava, you will get less money but if you put up factories, we earn a lot of money than growing cassava. We also create more jobs,” Mr Museveni said.
The President described a section of squatters who are still demanding compensation from the government over the park land as selfish persons.
“They think of only their stomachs. This was not their land. It was Bugisu Cooperative Union land,” he said.
He added that the NRM party has remained strong and vibrant because of its emphasis on its core principles of patriotism, pan Africanism and social economic transformation.
The State Minister for Privatisation and Investment, Ms Everlyn Anite, said the establishment of the factories will help to wean the country off dependence on imported goods.
“This will grow our economy and help us create employment opportunities,” Ms Anite, said.

Completion
Mr Paul Zhang, the chairperson of Sino – Uganda, Mbale Industrial Park, said the construction of all factories will be completed within two years .
“Within two years, the park will be completed and able to offer more than 20,000 direct and indirect jobs,” he said.
“The park will double as a major Small Medium Enterprise (SME), incubation and innovation base and an entrepreneur centre.”
Mr Michael Werikhe, the State Minister for Trade, said apart from creating job opportunities, the locals will be able get skills in relevant areas in order to produce and market their goods.
“The locals will use the park as entrepreneurship platform to empower themselves,” he said.
The Mbale District Woman MP, Ms Connie Galiwango, urged the government and the investors to also establish schools and a health centre in the area.
“We are happy for the factories but we also ask for schools and a health centre,” she said.