“Focus on trade channels to obtain viable products,”- Museveni

President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has assured prospective investors that the issue of taxation should not be raised as a hindrance to trade.

‘‘Taxation can be discussed later. Trade channels to obtain viable products is the most important issue’’, he said.

The President was yesterday holding a meeting with a group of twenty investors from the Republic of Sudan with interests to invest on various areas including in; gas and petroleum refinery, food and fruit processing, farming, e-waste, banking and insurance, chicken hatchery and construction among others.

The group comprised Abbarci Group of Ali Abbarci, Heiblig Petroleum Company led by Osman Siddig, Walls Petroleum company led by Mohmed Omar, Kampal Limited led by Yasir Kampal for food processing and Osman Industries who process sanitary pads.

Mr. Museveni urged the delegation to consider areas of investment in products with a high value addition component.

He said that for the investor interested in birds and animal feeds, government is ready to identify land in the south west of the country and in close proximity of the city centre with an advantage of feeds out-growers to supplement on a big production of the feeds.

He said those interested in food fruit processing can be helped to identify areas around Luwero, Masaka, Kayunga, Gulu and West Nile where fruits flourish well.

“It should be the option of the investor to choose the region. To guide the investor is not a problem. Uganda is the second largest producer of bananas after India in the world. Here, all fruits including oranges, mangoes etc grow very well’’, he said.

For coffee, President Museveni told the prospective investors that they can process and the surplus is exported for better profits. He said Uganda has a target of producing 20 million bags of coffee annually.