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Focus on infrastructure, Museveni urges Comesa
President Museveni greets Comesa Secretary General Sindiso Ndema Ngwenya during the infrastructure conference in Kampala at the weekend. Trade minister Amelia Kyambadde (2nd L) and Transport minister Abraham Byandala (2nd R) attended the conference. PHOTO BY PPU
What you need to know:
Strategy. The President says gone are the days when Africa would wait for donors to finance its projects.
Kampala
President Museveni has urged countries under the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) to finance infrastructure development that will boost the economic growth of the region.
“Improved infrastructure lowers the cost of doing business, attracts investors and creates employment. This conference should, therefore, address new and innovative ways of financing infrastructure through infrastructure bonds, public and private partnership approach or savings,” Mr Museveni, who is also chairperson of the regional grouping, said. He made the remarks while opening the first Comesa high level infrastructure investment conference at the weekend in Kampala.
The President added that assistance from development partners is welcome but advised that it is better to build capacity on self-help basis other than to always rely on good Samaritans to build our infrastructure.
Commenting on electricity production in Africa, President Museveni said the continent was still lagging behind in energy development compared to other continents. “The total installed capacity of electricity produced by the 19 Comesa member countries combined was only 55,000 megawatts compared to that of France which is 124,000 megawatts and United States of America’s one million megawatts,” he said.
On railway line coverage, Mr Museveni said the network was still low to spur trade in the region, comparing the coverage with that of India that has a network of 63,000 kilometres, Japan with a land area of 400,000 square kilometers and has a railway network of 24,000 kilometres.
