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By Godfrey Olukya 25-9-2015
President Yoweri Museveni has said that the world will be more
prosperous through the production and consumption of goods and
services and an improved infrastructure base to link them up.
The President said the world’s common interest is prosperity through
trade saying the production of goods and services creates jobs, and
enhances the purchasing power of Africans to be able to buy more
goods.
The President was today speaking at the 2015 African Heads of State
Investment and Working Lunch on the theme, “Intra-African Investment:
Programme for infrastructure development in Africa and Regional
Economic Integration,” held at Thomson Reuters, in Broadway, New York.
“These three yardsticks when applied to Africa will see Africa as a
continent of the present and future for the prosperity of the whole
world. It is time for Africa to help ourselves and the world economy,”
he said, adding that what Africa needs is entrepreneurs with
spectacles to see opportunities and the money to take advantage of
those opportunities.
The President was speaking along side other African leaders including
Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Malawi’s President Peter
Mutharika, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, the South
Sudan Vice President James Wani Igga. The leaders called for foreign
investments on the continent describing it as the fastest growing
region in the world despite various challenges including lack of
infrastructure such as roads and electricity.
The leaders emphasized economic integration of Africa through regional
blocs such as ECOWAS, COMESA, SADC and EAC. They said the USA
administration opened access to their markets tax and quota free
through Agoa and that other countries such as China, India and Japan
have also opened up their markets to Africa.
“The point is when you invest in Africa, you not only access market of
a country but also the region, the continent and the world,” President
Museveni said.
The luncheon was organized by Africa Investor; the premier African
investment and Private sector development platform for domestic and
global institutional investment decision makers, African governments,
development Finance Institutions and business leaders working in
Africa and other stakeholders.
END