President Museveni has defended Uganda’s plan to construct road and power projects in neighbouring DR Congo and South Sudan saying that it will boost regional trade in the long term.
The assurance came as the president addressed the country on the 58th Independence Day celebrations at State House Entebbe.
Museveni lashed out at MPs for rejecting the plan saying the roads are aimed at boosting trade between the two nations adding that the project will have to be conducted.
“The other day, I saw people in Parliament saying why is this man building roads in Congo when we have got bad roads here? Yes, we have our poor roads here, we also have good roads but in order to build roads, we need to trade in Congo,†he said.
“We aren’t going there to preach the gospel. The roads to Congo are there to build business, to enable us build our own roads. We have reached an agreement with DRC and South Sudan to jointly develop infrastructure like roads,†he said.
Museveni said the government is committed to the improvement of transport services to increase the country’s connectivity.
He said this has also been through construction of a number of roads and the revival of Uganda Airlines.
Museveni said one of the ideas he is fighting is the idea that electricity and the railway are areas to make profits.
“This is one of the issues I am having with a group called UMEME; these are people who want to make high profits. There are areas you can make profit from like casinos and I won’t fight you but electricity which is a basis for the whole production chain, you have to come with a different philosophy,†said Museveni.
Recently, government tabled a supplementary budget of Shs3.4Trn with Shs200billion dedicated for the construction of 223km of roads in the DRC following a bilateral agreement between Uganda and the DRC to implement strategic infrastructure projects.