President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has attributed Uganda’s flourishing Industrial sector to the good policy decisions made by the National Resistance Movement (NRM) government.

“When we look at these Industrial Parks, we can see the importance of a correct policy. Today we commissioned 16 factories and then we made a groundbreaking for another 9, so that is 25 and you remember this site here was a bush some years ago but now we have a labour force of 2,000 with 36 factories here.

“All this is because of policy decisions but policy decisions using our resources because the stimulus which brings investors here is the market,” President Museveni expounded.

The President made the remarks today while commissioning 16 factories and groundbreaking for the construction of 9 new ones at Sino Uganda- Mbale Industrial Park in Mbale City.

Currently, the Sino Uganda-Mbale Industrial Park has 36 factories composed of; 20 factories in operation, one factory destroyed by fire, 5 factories under construction and 12 at a stage of assembling plant and machinery.

He also explained that the government of Uganda created a conducive environment that has enabled investors to come and invest in the country. The President also reassured investors of a ready market for their products.

“These investors have spectacles that enable them to detect where there’s money. It’s upon us to provide the conducive environment that enables whoever wants to invest to come. That is our role. With a proper policy, everything does itself, that is why a person you least know about approaches you that they want to set up a textile factory.

They do this because they know Ugandans must dress up and they have the required raw materials here needed to produce clothes. Then that’s how government comes in to catalyse the process by providing electricity, peace, roads and other needed infrastructure,” he added.

“Many people don’t know that having market is wealth. We have market for Ugandans of 46 million and on that, we add the East African market of 130 million people as well as the African market of 1.5 billion people. All those people have needs which should be got using money from their pockets.”

The President condemned some countries which are trying to curtail the market of Ugandan products. He assured the stakeholders that that move will be hard to achieve by the critics because, “Our products are of good quality and at relatively low prices”.

He also assured industrialists that the challenge of electricity will soon be history since the government is currently solving the issue.

“Otherwise, electricity is enough and we are building more dams. We are also going to construct a water channel to deal with the problem of floods that affected us last time. We are also producing more fire brigade machinery for this industrial park and helping the industrial park with the infrastructure.

President Museveni also castigated unpatriotic government bodies like those in the power generation sector who don’t want to support local investors but instead resort to buy machinery from foreign countries.  

The Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Matia Kasaija was happy to note that Uganda is in the process of achieving its Industrialisation goal.

“This project is helping us to create jobs for our youth. If we could get more enterprises similar to this, then my worry about having a job for every youth who comes on the job market would be history, Kasaija concluded.”

The Minister of Energy and Mineral Development, Ruth Nankabirwa Uganda is fertile in as far as investment is concerned because or prevailing peace and peace is a prerequisite of development.  

The Minister of State for Investment and Privatization, Evelyn Anite reminded the audience that when President Museveni took over power in 1986, he assured Ugandans that his government would cause fundamental change and indeed fulfilled his promise by promoting peace and security as well as development.  

The Ambassador of China to Uganda Zhang Lizhong said China and Uganda are working together to implement the nine programs announced by President Xi Jin Ping of China in the latest China -Africa Summit.

The Chairperson of Sino-Uganda Industrial Park Mbale, Zhang Zhigang praised President Museveni for his unwavering support in realizing the dream come true. He also thanked the leadership of Mbale and all the people of the area for their support.

The Mbale Industrial Park produces a variety of goods such as glass, textiles, household detergents, mobile phones, smart televisions, baby diapers, clothes, LED bulbs, tubes, electric meters and stockings.