President Yoweri Kaguta Tibuhaburwa Museveni reaffirmed the Government’s commitment to continue developing the country’s infrastructure as the foundation for economic growth.
President said the government strategy and promise is to continue making steady progress in taking Uganda to modernity through job creation and inclusive development as enshrined in the National Development Plan 111 and Vision 2040.
President Museven’s remarks were delivered by the vice president Jessica Alupo on Thursday 14th December at Kololo independence grounds during the opening of Uganda construction and infrastructure forum and exhibition organized by UNABCEC to celebrate 30 years of shaping Uganda’s construction industry.
President explained that the government’s focus has been to transform Uganda from a predominantly peasant and low-income country to a competitive upper-middle-income status country.
He noted that his immediate focus has been to provide more energy to power industries light up homes and streets to improve infrastructure development.
The president congratulated the Uganda National Association of Building and Civil Engineering -UNABCEC for 30 years of contribution to shaping Uganda’s construction sector.
At the same event, Gen. Katumba Wamala, Minister for Transport and Works said that the government needs to support UNABCEC because they can’t afford to do what they are supposed to do without government involvement.
“The construction industry is one of the cornerstones of our country, and it has a lot of importance, it contributes about 12% of the country’s GDP, the recently released budget shows and the construction industry is in the top places”. Katumba said.
“The international airport is being expanded and also Kabalega International Airport construction is underway, to improve the connectivity”. He further noted.
Katumba pledged to work with UNABCEC and all the contractors in Uganda because the president says Uganda needs to be connected to Congo and other industries.
On his part, Olonya James the president of UNABCEC asked the government to take the issue of regulating the construction sector seriously to have an enabling environment for the industry to flourish.
The other activities lined up by UNABCEC include the Marathon scheduled tomorrow 17th Sunday at Kololo Independence grounds.
The Run for Road Accident Victims which will comprise 10km aims at raising awareness for timely interventions to reduce road accidents and also improve emergency response services in referral hospitals.
Meanwhile, Moses Agaba, the CEO of Fipro Uganda, the Run’s organizers has called up the general public to buy the kits and participate in large numbers.
Each kit goes for 30,000 Uganda shillings only.
