Museveni predicts 7% economic growth
Sep 24, 2009
PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni said yesterday Uganda would achieve economic growth exceeding 7% in 2009/10, higher than previously forecast. In a speech to the UN General Assembly, he focused on economic development.
UNITED NATIONS
PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni said yesterday Uganda would achieve economic growth exceeding 7% in 2009/10, higher than previously forecast. In a speech to the UN General Assembly, he focused on economic development.
Museveni said the economy had grown at a rate of 6.5 percent for the past 23 years and achieved 7% growth last year despite the global recession.
“In this financial year (2009/2010), our rate of growth will be in excess of seven percent,†Museveni said. Uganda has experienced steady growth over the past two decades. The finance ministry had previously forecast a 6% growth rate in 2009/10.
Uganda has been praised for its stability since Museveni came to power in 1986, ending the nation’s darkest days under Idi Amin and Milton Obote.
However, a fortnight ago, riots rocked Kampala after the Police refused to allow Buganda prime minister to travel to Kayunga district to prepare for the visit of the Kabaka.
Critics, including some Western donors, also accuse Museveni of turning a blind eye to high level corruption.
However, the President has repeatedly said his government is putting more effort to fighting corruption. He also warned the Government would deal with anyone trying to undermine peace and stability.
Addressing the UN, Museveni said growth had been held back by lack of infrastructure, particularly electricity, roads and railways. However, Uganda now had the capital to fund such projects itself, while still welcoming foreign investment.
“We can no longer ... be held at ransom by foreign funding for these vital foundational infrastructure elements,†he said.
“The haemorrhaging of exporting raw materials, for which we get 10 per cent of the final processed product, has been recognised by many of us as modern slavery.â€
He said consumer spending was rising in Africa as economies enjoy growth. “We are entering into the phase of growth and transformation. Therefore, we believe, our economy will soon take off,†he said.
Earlier, President Barack Obama promised a new era of US engagement with the world, and asked for global help in reigning in Iran and North Korea’s nuclear programmes as well as in the US war in Afghanistan.
“Those who used to chastise America for acting alone in the world cannot now stand by and wait for America to solve the world’s problems alone,†Obama said in his first speech to the assembly since taking office in January.
Obama urged international leaders to join him, saying it was time for many to move beyond “an almost reflexive anti-Americanism, which too often has served as an excuse for collective inaction.â€
Pledging to seek a nuclear weapon free world, Obama said he would find a new deal with Russia on reducing nuclear weapons.
Countries that refuse to meet their obligations must face consequences, he said.
The US leader also pledged to work with allies to strengthen financial regulation to “put an end to the greed, excess and abuse that led us into disaster.â€
On the Middle East, Obama said the time had come to resume Israeli-Palestinian peace talks without preconditions.
“We continue to call on Palestinians to end incitement against Israel and we continue to emphasise that America does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements.â€
He also said the US would not allow al Qaeda to launch attacks from safe havens in Afghanistan or any nation.
Regarding climate change, Obama vowed to promote renewable energy and share green technology with countries around the world.
“We will press ahead with deep cuts in emissions to reach the goals that we set for 2020, and eventually 2050.â€
Libyan leader Muammar Gadaffi followed Obama at the podium, making his own UN debut amid raw US emotions over the Lockerbie bombing after Scotland’s release of a Libyan official convicted in the 1988 attack.
But Gadaffi’s rambling one-and-a-half-hour speech, which touched on everything from the UN Charter to the 1963 assassination of former US President John F. Kennedy, ended up driving some delegates from the room in boredom.
Gadaffi accused the veto-wielding powers of the Security Council of betraying the principles of the UN charter.
“The preamble (of the charter) says all nations are equal whether they are small or big,†Gadaffi said through an interpreter.
“The veto is against the charter, we do not accept it and we do not acknowledge it.â€
Clad in a copper-coloured robe with an emblem of Africa pinned over his chest, the Libyan leader dropped his paperback copy of the UN Charter on the podium several times and at one point was about to tear it.
The United States, Britain, France, Russia and China are permanent veto-wielding members of the Security Council. Libya has a temporary council seat and will be on the 15-nation panel until the end of 2010.
“Veto power should be annulled,†Gadaffi said.
“The Security Council did not provide us with security but with terror and sanctions,†he told the leaders.
Gadaffi, who currently chairs the African Union, said the fact that “65 wars†have broken out since the UN was established more than 60 years ago proved its founding principles had been betrayed.
PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni said yesterday Uganda would achieve economic growth exceeding 7% in 2009/10, higher than previously forecast. In a speech to the UN General Assembly, he focused on economic development.
Museveni said the economy had grown at a rate of 6.5 percent for the past 23 years and achieved 7% growth last year despite the global recession.
“In this financial year (2009/2010), our rate of growth will be in excess of seven percent,†Museveni said. Uganda has experienced steady growth over the past two decades. The finance ministry had previously forecast a 6% growth rate in 2009/10.
Uganda has been praised for its stability since Museveni came to power in 1986, ending the nation’s darkest days under Idi Amin and Milton Obote.
However, a fortnight ago, riots rocked Kampala after the Police refused to allow Buganda prime minister to travel to Kayunga district to prepare for the visit of the Kabaka.
Critics, including some Western donors, also accuse Museveni of turning a blind eye to high level corruption.
However, the President has repeatedly said his government is putting more effort to fighting corruption. He also warned the Government would deal with anyone trying to undermine peace and stability.
Addressing the UN, Museveni said growth had been held back by lack of infrastructure, particularly electricity, roads and railways. However, Uganda now had the capital to fund such projects itself, while still welcoming foreign investment.
“We can no longer ... be held at ransom by foreign funding for these vital foundational infrastructure elements,†he said.
“The haemorrhaging of exporting raw materials, for which we get 10 per cent of the final processed product, has been recognised by many of us as modern slavery.â€
He said consumer spending was rising in Africa as economies enjoy growth. “We are entering into the phase of growth and transformation. Therefore, we believe, our economy will soon take off,†he said.
Earlier, President Barack Obama promised a new era of US engagement with the world, and asked for global help in reigning in Iran and North Korea’s nuclear programmes as well as in the US war in Afghanistan.
“Those who used to chastise America for acting alone in the world cannot now stand by and wait for America to solve the world’s problems alone,†Obama said in his first speech to the assembly since taking office in January.
Obama urged international leaders to join him, saying it was time for many to move beyond “an almost reflexive anti-Americanism, which too often has served as an excuse for collective inaction.â€
Pledging to seek a nuclear weapon free world, Obama said he would find a new deal with Russia on reducing nuclear weapons.
Countries that refuse to meet their obligations must face consequences, he said.
The US leader also pledged to work with allies to strengthen financial regulation to “put an end to the greed, excess and abuse that led us into disaster.â€
On the Middle East, Obama said the time had come to resume Israeli-Palestinian peace talks without preconditions.
“We continue to call on Palestinians to end incitement against Israel and we continue to emphasise that America does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements.â€
He also said the US would not allow al Qaeda to launch attacks from safe havens in Afghanistan or any nation.
Regarding climate change, Obama vowed to promote renewable energy and share green technology with countries around the world.
“We will press ahead with deep cuts in emissions to reach the goals that we set for 2020, and eventually 2050.â€
Libyan leader Muammar Gadaffi followed Obama at the podium, making his own UN debut amid raw US emotions over the Lockerbie bombing after Scotland’s release of a Libyan official convicted in the 1988 attack.
But Gadaffi’s rambling one-and-a-half-hour speech, which touched on everything from the UN Charter to the 1963 assassination of former US President John F. Kennedy, ended up driving some delegates from the room in boredom.
Gadaffi accused the veto-wielding powers of the Security Council of betraying the principles of the UN charter.
“The preamble (of the charter) says all nations are equal whether they are small or big,†Gadaffi said through an interpreter.
“The veto is against the charter, we do not accept it and we do not acknowledge it.â€
Clad in a copper-coloured robe with an emblem of Africa pinned over his chest, the Libyan leader dropped his paperback copy of the UN Charter on the podium several times and at one point was about to tear it.
The United States, Britain, France, Russia and China are permanent veto-wielding members of the Security Council. Libya has a temporary council seat and will be on the 15-nation panel until the end of 2010.
“Veto power should be annulled,†Gadaffi said.
“The Security Council did not provide us with security but with terror and sanctions,†he told the leaders.
Gadaffi, who currently chairs the African Union, said the fact that “65 wars†have broken out since the UN was established more than 60 years ago proved its founding principles had been betrayed.