Japan To Invest In Rwenzori Area

Sep 16, 2002

The Japanese ambassador to Uganda, Tatsuya Miki, said on Friday his country was ready to invest in the Rwenzori region if the area’s security continues to stabilise.

By John B. Thawite
in Kasese

The Japanese ambassador to Uganda, Tatsuya Miki, said on Friday his country was ready to invest in the Rwenzori region if the area’s security continues to stabilise.
Miki paid a courtesy call on the RDC, Musa Ecweru, in kasese town and the district chairman, Yokasi Bihande, at Rukoki on Friday.
The envoy said Japan was ready to support education, primary health care, capacity building, agriculture and infrastructure. He said central Uganda was already benefiting from his country’s support.
“But that is not correct. We need to expand our support especially to West Nile and Kasese,” he said.
He said many Japanese tourists were yearning to visit places like the Rwenzori Mountains and Queen Elizabeth National Park but had very little tourism information.
He challenged tour agencies to avail information, which he said was greatly lacking.
Miki said Japan was currently unable to invest in the Rwenzori region after classifying it unsafe three years ago due to the former Allied Democratic Front (ADF) rebellion.
He said his tour of the area was to assess the security situation and the crime rate.
The envoy, who travelled alone in his ambassadorial car, said he had visited Bundibugyo on the same mission.
The RDC and the chairman assured the envoy that Kasese was now safe. They said the ADF rebellion had been crushed with exception of a few remnants now marooned in the eastern DR Congo.
Ecweru said there were efforts to repatriate the rebel remnants and their mostly child and women captives.
“We now have a permanent mountain force to ensure than no enemy ever attacks the country through the Rwenzori again,” he said.
Ecweru also assured the envoy that many illegal gun holders had been disarmed and others arrested, minimising the level of crime in the district.
Bihande told the envoy that the necessary conditions for tourism were available. Ends

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