Geneva/Brussels, 18 May - UNCTAD, UNDP and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) today launched a package of technical assistance programmes geared towards investment promotion and enterprise development in Uganda.
UNCTAD and ICC released the Investment Guide to Uganda (1) the fourth investment guide produced in the framework of an UNCTAD/ICC project. It follows previous guides on Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Mali and provides an overview of the investment climate and of the existing investment opportunities in Uganda. It also includes an introduction to the regulatory framework for foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country.
The package is part of the initiatives announced during the Third UN Conference on the LDCs, which opened here on 14 May and is aimed at combating economic isolation and poverty in the world’s poorest countries.According to the Guide, “Uganda is clearly positioned to become one of the most attractive business locations in Africa”. In the past 15 years, it has built up an almost unparalleled track record in policy reform and economic performance. Uganda is among the star performers in Africa in the past decade, boasting one of the continent’s highest GDP growth rates. This dynamic development was triggered by the government’s reform programme, at the centre of which is the creation of a dynamic private sector. This forward-looking approach has attracted an increasing number of foreign investors, including some who had left the country a number of years ago.
As documented in the Guide, a wide variety of investment opportunities await potential investors in Uganda, particularly in such natural resources as mining and agriculture. Other opportunities exist in services industries, in particular tourism, and through the government’s privatization programme.
The Guide also mentions problem areas for foreign investors, including deficiencies in infrastructure, the country’s landlocked location, and a micro- and small-scale enterprise sector whose operations are geared primarily towards satisfying domestic market demands, with very limited export orientation and limited linkages with large-scale commercial/industrial operations.
Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play a crucial role in stimulating broad-based, equitable and sustainable economic development through employment and income generation. The main constraints affecting the development of a globally competitive SME sector in Uganda include the lack of entrepreneurial and management skills; limited access to and high cost of financing; lack of business development support services; limited access to information on market opportunities; and poor economic infrastructure.
In response to these challenges, the government of Uganda, Empretec-UNCTAD, Enterprise Africa-UNDP and the Italian Directorate for Development Cooperation today announced a $1.5 million Enterprise Uganda project(2). The project will create a one-stop enterprise support centre which will provide local SMEs with training, business development services, networking and partnering opportunities to foster entrepreneurial capabilities and international competitiveness.
Enterprise Uganda applies the Empretec model, an integrated capacity-building programme that is being used by both the Empretec Programme of UNCTAD and the Enterprise Africa Programme of UNDP. Since the start of Empretec in 1988, the programme has been established in more than 20 countries in Africa and Latin America, including a number of LDCs. More than 30´000 entrepreneurs have been assisted through 45 market-driven local Business Support Centres. The model has been successfully applied in such LDCs as Ethiopia, Mozambique and Senegal. Many other African LDCs are expected to benefit from Empretec in the near future.
For the transfer of the Empretec methodology to beneficiary countries, UNDP and UNCTAD successfully apply South-South cooperation. In Uganda, this transfer will be undertaken by leading entrepreneurship development programmes Zimbabwe and Enterprise Ethiopia.
The Investment Guide and the Enterprise Uganda Programme complement previous UNCTAD work in Uganda. In 1999, UNCTAD conducted an Investment Policy Review(3) that identified strengths and weaknesses in the FDI policy framework and sparked off the “Big Push” programme of the Ugandan government aimed at improving regulations on FDI.
These programmes, which all build on one another, assist the government of Uganda to revive the private sector as a cornerstone of national development.
