The report assesses the extent to which the recommendations of the Investment Policy Review of Uganda have been implemented since the completion of the Review in 2000. The Government of Uganda should be credited with engaging in a focused reform agenda over the period 2000–2006, but constraints and bottlenecks in key areas persist and the implementation of certain long-planned reforms has been significantly slower than expected.
The record in the utilities, infrastructure and financial services sectors is strong in terms of regulatory reforms, but mixed in terms of quality and availability of services. Excellent progress has been made in the banking sector, and railway operations were recently concessioned to a private operator. The electricity sector has been reorganized, but investments in additional generation capacity did not take place as recommended, and Uganda is facing a renewed power crisis as a result of low capacity.
Good progress has been made in investment facilitation and promotion, including through the "Big Push" strategy recommended in the Review. The eight key actions of the strategy have all been partly — and sometimes fully — implemented.
While the overall implementation record is good, a recurrent weakness in Uganda is the relatively slow pace in moving from conception to realization. A number of key reforms have been rigorously discussed and planned over the past few years, but have not yet reached completion. As a result, major infrastructure bottlenecks — international land transport and power in particular — remain key obstacles to investment.
