Northern Corridor summit opens, private sector integrated

By David Mugabe

The 10th summit of the Northern Corridor Integration projects have commenced this Wednesday in Kampala, Uganda.

For the first time, business has been integrated into the summit and private sector has been offered an opportunity to host the eight heads of State.

“The presidents will be hosted to a grand dinner on Friday, we hope to raise issues of concern but also where the private sector can help,” noted Irene Nakalyango, chief executive officer of Uganda Chamber of Mines and Petroleum (UCMP) who are coordinating efforts of the private sector.

The East and central region is racing against time to overcome the infrastructure deficits which has been one of the biggest bottlenecks holding back its competitiveness for decades.

Impressive steps have been made with the commitment to having a standard guage railway line, power lines, joint energy projects as well as eliminating non-tariff barriers.

Generally, the Northern Corridor Initiative Projects focuses on addressing key infrastructure areas of the standard gauge railway, ICT, oil refinery and the pipeline, power generation, refined petroleum and mineral development, human resource capacity building, commodities exchange development, immigration, tourism, trade, labor and services, airspace management, single customs territory, financing, peace and security.

The summit also coincides with the Martyrs Day celebrations happening at Uganda Martyrs Namugongo where almost two million people have converged over the last few days in what is clearly now the biggest faith based tourism festival in East Africa.

Pilgrims have flocked from all over East Africa, Europe and the Americas in the last few weeks camping in Namugongo and its confines.

The permanent secretary in the ministry of foreign affairs,James Mugume has opened the summit at the Kampala Serena Hotel.

The opening sessions of the summit will mainly focus on the three countries of Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda giving a status report of the projects they are coordinating so far.

The observer states of South Sudan, Tanzania, Burundi, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo will then make comments.

The three day summit runs upto Saturday.

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