By Patrick Musisi, Mukono
Located at Kasenge village in Nama sub-county, five kilometers from Mukono town along Kampala-Jinja highway is the bustling Chinese factory for building steel products, plywood boards and foam mattresses, opened way back in 2009.
Tian Tang Group (TTG), officially commissioned by President Yoweri Museveni in 2014, has since inception distinguished itself as an entity all out to contribute to realization of the presidential dream of improving household incomes, fighting unemployment and in effect cut down on poverty levels.
Watchdog Uganda made a site tour to the factory and interacted with workers and leaders at managerial level, and established facts about achievement so far scored towards the above objectives.
True to their word, over 1,600 Ugandans at all levels have been employed, with hope for this number to rise when the group’s Tangshan Industrial Park in Mbale, inaugurated by President Museveni last March, becomes fully operational.
The groups head of administration and publicist Owen Jin explained that besides taking on Ugandans in such big numbers, they have done a number of corporate social responsibility activities like supporting schools and health units in the community, and specifically cited construction of P{earl Junior Academy, donating scholastic materials
to several schools, and sponsoring eco projects like hands-go-green.
TTG is also on record as having made donations of medical supplies to Katoogo Health Centre and, much further away, twenty tractors to Karamoja region in the agricultural mechanization drive.
Explaining the group’s commitment to improve Ugandans’ lifestyles, Jin said, “We support and applaud the presidential vision and greatly believe that with increased industrialization, employment and improving of people’s living standards will automatically be realized”.
And the Human Resource Officer Charles Lubowa told Watchdog Uganda that from the onset, they adopted a policy of ensuring that employees, the most valuable resource, remains vibrant, healthy and always available to keep the production chain in movement.
“Our staff are entitled to a 21-day annual leave, medical treatment for self and full physical protection through compulsory use of protecting gear; and where the inevitable occurs, we provide compensation to those that are seriously injured”, Lubowa said.
The workers variously expressed satisfaction that they can now afford to take their children to school, and added that unofficially, the company extends small loans on very friendly terms for construction of residential houses for their families.
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