People are our biggest resource - Museveni

May 17, 2019

The President said that a country like Japan does not have natural mineral resources, but its economy has grown extensively based on its human resource development and it is now ranked the second richest country in the world.

President Yoweri Museveni has said for any country to develop faster, it should first invest in its own population, which he said is the biggest capital resource for any country.

"A country like China with a population of about 1.3 billion people still yearns to capture the USA population to expand its market base to increase on consumption of its products and services," he said.

"Our government is keen on protecting our country's human capital development. Uganda's future plans are to ensure that there is full monetisation of the economy for the country to attain money economy status like the developed world," he added.

 
The President was delivering an opportunity lecture to a delegation of army officers from the Armed Forces Command and Staff College of the Federal Republic of Nigeria who are in the country for a one-week study tour on ‘Uganda's Economic Development with a view of Human Capital Development.'

Rear Admiral MA Emuekapero is leading the delegation of 37 army officers, who met the President at Masindi State Lodge in Masindi district this week.

The President said that a country like Japan does not have natural mineral resources, but its economy has grown extensively based on its human resource development and it is now ranked the second richest country in the world.

He noted that although the western world fully aimed at keeping the African continent backward', many strategies have been put in place to ensure progressive economic development.

 

"For example by 1986, Uganda had 60MW of hydro-generated electricity. We have been able to increase that to about 2,000MW and we envisage a future power projection of 17,000MW. This, combined with infrastructure development and the construction of the proposed Standard Gauge Railway, there are hopes that Uganda and indeed Africa will become modern", he said.

The President further noted that Uganda's former political leaders were biased against the private sector development because they feared its implementation, as there was lack of successful supervision.

He, however, added that liberalisation of the economy with serious controls on quality like in education, health, industrialization sectors, have increased the country's revenue tax base paid directly or indirectly and have enhanced faster national economic growth.

 
"Current statistics indicate that Uganda used to have only 40 factories, today they have grown to 4,900 or more, employing about two million people, the services sector employs about 1.3 million people while the ICT backbone employs over 380,000 people", he said.

Rear Admiral MA Emuekpero thanked President Museveni for the eloquent presentation of informative lecture with wisdom, his love for the country and forwarded an invitation to him to visit Nigeria and deliver more lectures for the benefit of African people to access free information.

The delegation delivered several gifts to the President.

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