President Yoweri Museveni on Friday received Uganda’s accolades for being the best investment destination in East Africa and among the top 10 on the African continent.
At Statehouse Entebbe, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Ambassador to Uganda H.E. Abdalla Hassan Al Shamsi handed over the accolades to President Museveni in the presence of the State Minister for Privatization and Investment.
During the Annual Investment Meeting (AIM) 2023 in Abu Dhabi where more than 170 countries took part in exhibitions and lobbying investments, Uganda on May 9th through its Investment Authority bagged the gold award after beating six other nations to emerge the best investment destination in East Africa in the year 2022.
In this meeting, Ambassador Abdalla Hassan informed H.E Museveni that his invitation to his UAE counterpart to attend Uganda’s Independence Day Celebrations on October 9th, 2023, has been delivered and they too used this opportunity to present an invitation to President Museveni from his UAE counterpart His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed to attend COP28 in UAE in November this year.
“We shall be very happy to host him here,” President Museveni said.
Ambassador Abdalla Hassan Al Shamsi and his visiting delegation from Sharjah in the UAE also expressed their gratitude to H.E Museveni for the hospitality granted to them while in Uganda and the opportunity to visit the various tourist sites like Kidepo National Park.
“Let His Highness come and visit also. I have been to Dubai and Abu Dhabi a number of times. It will be nice for your people to come also,” H.E Museveni said.
In her speech, Evelyn Anite the State Minister for privatization and investment informed the President that the recognition was due to his efforts to encourage continuity of trade and manufacturing amidst the tough times of the Covid-19 era.
“We presented your guidance on how we attracted investments and one of the companies we presented to UAE for the competition was the Modern Tiles Factory in Njeru that you commissioned. We also presented the production of sanitizers, and we became number one in the whole of East Africa,” Minister Anite said, adding that a similar assessment by the African Development Bank put Uganda among the top 10 best investment destinations in Africa.
The Annual Investment Meeting (AIM) 2023, was held under the theme “The Investment Paradigm Shift: Future Investment Opportunities to Foster Sustainable Economic Growth, Diversity, and Prosperity.”
