We must attain middle income status by 2020 - Rugunda

Prime Minister Dr Ruhakana Rugunda has said Uganda must achieve middle income status by the year 2020.

He was speaking as a guest of honour at the 6th National Development Planning Forum in Kampala.

The forum that was held at the Office of the President was attended by a cross-section of stakeholders and members of the general public.

During the forum, National Planning Authority (NPA) and other experts discussed Uganda's middle income status goal and provided technical guidance and understanding on how this goal will be achieved and what needs to be done to realize it by 2020.

Rugunda said if the 23 strategic directives that were recently given to the new Cabinet by President Yoweri Museveni are achieved, they will deliver them to middle income status.

These directives are in line with the 2rd National Development Plan.  "We have, as a country, as a Government and as a people pronounced ourselves on an ambitious target of achieving middle income status by 2020.This is a goal which we must achieve. Failure is not an option. Succeed we must," he emphasised.

He, however, said this will take more than talking, and tackling the challenges they face, head on.

"I want to take this opportunity to reaffirm the President's commitment that this is a 'kisanja hakuna mchezo'. Therefore, government will this term deal with the two major impediments that have slowed our progress: corruption by public officials and delay of decision-making," Rugunda said.

He said strategic planning across all levels of Government will be enforced.

"Implementation for results will be strengthened. The entire government will be held accountable for results at all levels, starting with ministers who are expected to periodically report progress on results based on performance contracts," the prime minister said.

To achieve their goals, Rugunda said the Government will strengthen implementation, effectiveness and efficiency in public service delivery mechanisms.

"This will require entrenching planning across all levels, including non-state actors; administering and enforcing performance contracts for all account ting officers with clear incentives and sanctions for non-performance," he told the forum.

He said with the issues of electricity and transport costs being addressed, they believe that their progress will be faster.

"With abundant and cheaper power, as well as a better roads network, our pace of industrialization will pick up. The President has pledged to provide electricity at the cost of 5 American cents per unit to manufacturers," he said.

We're accounting

Rugunda said by inviting the general public to a forum like that, they were making a public statement of accountability about what they were doing, and inviting all stakeholders to play their rightful roles.

"Uganda is at a crossroad of reform and development. Opportunities and advantages abound, but challenges and obstacles can be overcome," he stated.

He believed that the current and future generations of Ugandans had the will, power and competence to make the reforms they want to succeed.

His views were echoed by David Bahati, the minister of state for finance, who said to achieve the required results, there was need for a conscious and targeted effort to management for results through doing business unusual under this hakuna mchezo kisanja.

"This will necessitate commitment by all actors including sectors, ministries, department and agencies, local governments and non-state actors towards the attainment of middle income status," he said.

Dr Joseph Muvawala, NPA executive director, presented a paper titled "The Goal of Middle Income Status; what does this mean for Uganda?"

Muvawala said they were confident as NPA that the goal of attaining middle income status was realistic and achievable.

He said Uganda had already attained the vulnerability requirements and a review of its major development phases revealed that the goal was feasible.

"However, attaining long-term development aspirations for Uganda will require a shift from an incremental approach to a transformative approach. Therefore the goal will only be achieved through doing business unusual and implementation of the required policy shifts," Muvawala said.

He said the informal sector should not only be looked at as a missed tax base but as an engine of growth that is well tapped can be used to transform the economy.

Prof Edward Bbaale, the school of economics dean at Makerere University, and Racheal Sebbudde, the country economist at the World Bank, called for registration of land and land reforms in order to transform the economy.

"According to World Bank, 20% of the land in Uganda is registered. In Ethiopia 50% of the land is registered. So in this case how shall we leverage the importance of agriculture? You can't even get collateral to do business in agriculture if you don't have land rights," he said.

What middle income status means

For a common Ugandan, Muvawala said middle income status means on average, each individual in a household should earn or produce an equivalent of sh290, 000 per month or sh3.5m per annum.

He said every individual in a household should afford at least two meals a day (equivalent to at least 1,500kilo calories of food per day).

"On average, each member of the household should be able to complete ordinary level of education (attain 11 years of schooling). At last 2.2 million (from the current 1.03 million) out of 7.3 million households should have access to electricity by 2020," he explained.

He also stated that all urban households and at least 4.8 million (80%) of the 6 million rural households should access safe water.