Museveni meets US, Belgium ambassadors

President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni on Thursday afternoon met and held discussions with the Belgian Ambassador to Uganda, Rudi Veestraeten and the Deputy Chief of Mission and the Chargé d'Affaires at the US Embassy, Christopher Krafft.

Museveni and his guests discussed areas of mutual interest between Uganda, Belgium and the United States, focusing especially on the education sector.

The President told his guests that African economies are under-developed but have a big potential which is not utilised. 

"The potential of Africa is multi-sectorial but this potential is not used. For an economy to grow, it is important to focus on capital expenditure than re-current expenditure. If you can't only emphasise education and don't look at roads, electricity etc," he said.

The meeting, which was attended, by the First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports, Janet Kataha Museveni, and Foreign Affairs Minister, Sam Kuteesa, took place at State House Entebbe.

Museveni revealed to his guests that in the region, even in the whole world, there is no country like Uganda whose economy had collapsed completely but the NRM government was able to revive it using correct methods and policies.

"Uganda's economy had collapsed completely during Amin's time. There is no economy in the world that collapsed completely like Uganda. To revive this economy, our priorities were different from other neighboring countries. As a country, we budget to build a durable base and a viable political unit that will defend us. It's like building the armed forces, if you don't have an army, you don't have education, security, health etc" the President said.

First Lady Janet Museveni said that both Belgium and the United States are countries that have stood with Uganda and have helped to support different programmes and projects in the education sector.

Veestraeten said that investment in education is key to the development of any country.