By Cyprian Musoke
and Ibrahim Kasiita

UGANDA has been advised to ensure transparency and accountability in its oil resource exploration to avoid the pitfalls other African states have suffered.

Addressing the press on Monday, the spokesperson of the Smart Partnership Dialogue, Thomas Harvey, said the participants shared views how to manage resources like oil in a smart way so as to benefit the general public. Members of the press had asked him whether the meeting was not a mere talking shop without any meaningful resolutions.

“It is beyond brainstorming because we shared experience with Uganda that has just discovered oil on how to manage this resource, with experiences from countries that already have the resource,” Harvey said.

“This includes who is to manage the resources and how the community can be involved and how funds accruing from the oil should be utilised.

Participants emphasized regional integration so that trans-boundary resources can be jointly developed to ensure harmony, peace and prosperity.

Earlier, during the experience sharing session, President Yoweri Museveni said he was not worried about the global economic meltdown, noting that African countries should focus on production and stimulating consumption.

“Let us deal with issues of production and supply. Inflation is a result of high demand.” Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin talked about the Malaysian way of
tackling the global economic crisis.
Muhyiddin said the Malaysian government had implemented proactive steps by introducing stabilization measures and an economic stimulus package of $16b.

The proactive measures, he explained, were aimed at reducing unemployment while increasing employment opportunities and easing the burden on the most vulnerable groups.

Muhyiddin said the government had also announced liberalization measures for the financial sector and 27 service sectors, involving health, social services, tourism, transport, business services as well as computer services.

He said the objective was to create a conducive business environment to attract more investment, bringing in more professionals and technology, strengthen competitiveness and create better employment opportunities.

Malaysia believed that knowledge management was an effective tool to enhance the delivery of services.

“In this respect, Malaysia has developed the Key Performance Index, aimed at reducing bureaucratic red tape and measuring the effectiveness of the public services performance,” he said.

Apart from that, Muhyiddin said the government had established a task force to address bureaucracy in business-government dealings.

“It further facilitates the private sector in business operations,” he said. On regional economic cooperation, he said the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, ASEAN, had implemented free trade agreements with China, Korea and Japan.