Allow Madhvani to build the golf course
May 08, 2006
Over the past few months in Uganda, eyebrows have been raised from different perspectives over Madhvani Group’s proposal to build a golf course in Queen Elizabeth National Park (QENP). Environmental conservationists have come up strongly to rebuke the idea, branding it a kind of defilement to some
Steven Basaliza
Over the past few months in Uganda, eyebrows have been raised from different perspectives over Madhvani Group’s proposal to build a golf course in Queen Elizabeth National Park (QENP). Environmental conservationists have come up strongly to rebuke the idea, branding it a kind of defilement to some of the best national treasures bequeathed to Ugandans. This is looking at the matter from one side. I beg to support the minister for tourism that the project should commence.
The Madhvani family are entrepreneurs. They have remained an innovative and motivating factor in investment and are responsive to a constantly changing environment.
The tourism industry is one of Uganda’s service sectors that have attracted big foreign currencies into Uganda’s economy. The world is dynamic and the modern world has come with modern tourism, which we have to fit in.
Golf is a game believed to be played by high profile people. Its being a sport, just like cricket, football, swimming and rallying, it brings passion to a person. So when a golf course goes to the countryside, it will serve as a ‘double attraction’ to the tourists who really would love to swing a club. By this, they will stay longer (with another aim of viewing the animals as well) and spend more money, thereby injecting as much in the economy.
Madhvani, like all entrepreneurs, might have seen such an idea work in another country and his decision to bring it to Uganda is not bad. What have been the effects of similar projects in South Africa, Australia, Zimbabwe and Ecuador? The animals there have not been killed and haven’t been displaced completely – as many conservationists are arguing in defence of their case. These countries have continued to reap big from such investments in modern tourism.
Madhvani’s innovation and other entrepreneurial development programmes should be seen as a means of achieving diverse objectives, such as reducing youth unemployment and providing alternative or supplementary income sources for the people in the rural areas where such initiatives are located or would be located. The number of tourists flocking the country is bound to increase due to innovations such as a golf course in areas where they go to view animals, and this has a big multiplier effect.
The writer is outgoing
MP for Burahya
Over the past few months in Uganda, eyebrows have been raised from different perspectives over Madhvani Group’s proposal to build a golf course in Queen Elizabeth National Park (QENP). Environmental conservationists have come up strongly to rebuke the idea, branding it a kind of defilement to some of the best national treasures bequeathed to Ugandans. This is looking at the matter from one side. I beg to support the minister for tourism that the project should commence.
The Madhvani family are entrepreneurs. They have remained an innovative and motivating factor in investment and are responsive to a constantly changing environment.
The tourism industry is one of Uganda’s service sectors that have attracted big foreign currencies into Uganda’s economy. The world is dynamic and the modern world has come with modern tourism, which we have to fit in.
Golf is a game believed to be played by high profile people. Its being a sport, just like cricket, football, swimming and rallying, it brings passion to a person. So when a golf course goes to the countryside, it will serve as a ‘double attraction’ to the tourists who really would love to swing a club. By this, they will stay longer (with another aim of viewing the animals as well) and spend more money, thereby injecting as much in the economy.
Madhvani, like all entrepreneurs, might have seen such an idea work in another country and his decision to bring it to Uganda is not bad. What have been the effects of similar projects in South Africa, Australia, Zimbabwe and Ecuador? The animals there have not been killed and haven’t been displaced completely – as many conservationists are arguing in defence of their case. These countries have continued to reap big from such investments in modern tourism.
Madhvani’s innovation and other entrepreneurial development programmes should be seen as a means of achieving diverse objectives, such as reducing youth unemployment and providing alternative or supplementary income sources for the people in the rural areas where such initiatives are located or would be located. The number of tourists flocking the country is bound to increase due to innovations such as a golf course in areas where they go to view animals, and this has a big multiplier effect.
The writer is outgoing
MP for Burahya