Govt to identify key opportunities for growth

By Vision Reporter

THE Government and World Bank are preparing a joint ‘Country Economic Memorandum’ report, which will identify key opportunities and challenges to accelerating socioeconomic transformation, as Uganda harnesses the opportunities of its newly-discovered natural resource wealth. 

“The economic memorandum will emphasise the steps Uganda is undertaking in oil exploitation and the need to identify the key obstacles that constrain the country’s growth potential,” said Patrick Ocailap, the deputy secretary to the Treasury at the finance ministry.

“The Government is committed to ensuring that opportunities from oil extraction translate into increased opportunities for the Ugandan society as a whole”. 

Economic diversification is fundamental for prosperity and socio-economic transformation and is a key objective of Uganda’s development agenda. 

Evidence shows that countries exporting diversified products tend to have higher average incomes. Dr. Jean-Pascal Nganou, the senior country economist at the World Bank and lead author of the report, said: “For Uganda to benefit from oil and gas resources, the Government must undertake a realistic assessment of the expected long-term revenues.

Planning on the basis of projected oil revenues, which turn out to be too optimistic, could cause serious macroeconomic and fiscal imbalances. No oil or extractive resource can be exploited forever,” he said.