UN’s Malango advises new UIA boss to make use of Uganda embassies abroad to lure more foreign investors

Jolly K Kaguhangire, Executive Director Uganda Investment Authority met with Rosa Malango the Resident UN representative to Uganda and Dr. Ankebe Oqubay, the Economic adviser to the Prime Minister of Ethiopia at the Kampala Industrial and Business Park in Namanve. The meeting is part of efforts to increase collaboration between the UNDP and relevant Government agencies.

In her briefing to the meeting, the Executive Director informed the guests that the park had a total of 21 operational industries, 79 under active construction currently out of a total of 296 allocated businesses. Notable among the current active industries are Coca Cola which sits on 30 acres and employs 550 people, Roofings Uganda with a total estimated investment of 200 Million US dollars and Orion transformers.

Mrs. Kaguhangire added that the target is to have the park operate at full capacity by the year 2021 employing an estimated 200,000 people.
Rosa Malango advised UIA to make use of Uganda’s embassies abroad as the first points of call for foreign investors since they are within easy reach in the particular countries. She encouraged the authority to produce clear audio-visual materials to clearly explain Uganda’s unique offering as an investment destination.

She also commended the good allocation of space in the park’s different estates and pledged UNDP’s commitment to working with UIA to achieve Vision 2040 as per the National Development Plan 2 and committed support to UIA to visit Ethiopia for bench marking on improving productivity efficiency of the business parks.
On his part, Dr. Ankebe advised the Executive Director to tailor make incentives based on sectors since they each sectoral investments have different needs.

He however emphasized that investment incentives are purely “sweeteners” when attracting investors but the real determinants of investor appetite and investment sustainability were cost and quality of labour, cost of energy and market access.

He appealed to UIA to encourage investors to improve waste management and treatment practices and make use of zero discharge technologies. He lauded UIA for being an excellent model for industrialization practices.

The Executive Director thanked UNDP for continued collaboration and pledged to ensure increased participation of Ugandans in the investment attracted. She later took the delegation on a guided tour around the Industrial park.