10 key facts about Mbale industrial park

INFRASTRUCTURE   INDUSTRALISATION

President Yoweri Museveni on Wednesday commissioned a mobile power substation at the Sino-Uganda Industrial Park in Mbale City. 

The mobile substation will guarantee 50mw of power to the industrial park to support the growing number of industries that have set up inside the sprawling structure.

Here's what you did not know about the industrial park

Facts about the Mbale Industrial Park

1. The industrial park has the first mobile substation in Uganda and will be linked to the Tororo-Soroti power line, according to Harriet Nalugya, the senior safety and standards engineer at UETCL which is installing the project.

2. The installation of the mobile substation is a temporary solution to power shortages at the industrial park as government clears ground to establish a permanent substation.

3. Sino-Uganda Industrial Park currently employs about 5,000 people and is envisaged to create jobs for over 200,000 Ugandans from the local community at full capacity.

4. The Mbale Industrial Park is one of 22 national-level industrial parks around the country that were proposed by President Yoweri Museveni to process locally produced material for value addition.

5. The Mbale Industrial Park has been listed by the Chinese government as the industrial park with the highest potential in Uganda because of its geographical location. 

6. This park not only enhances China's influence abroad but also supports the country in the transfer of its business capacity in the new situation of the "Belt and Road", in an effort to bring new opportunities for the development of the enterprise.

7. According to the Chinese government, the Sino-Uganda Mbale Industrial Park has many advantages such as advantageous geographical position, preferential policy of Uganda, broad development and high return of investment,

8. The location of Mbale between Kampala and the Kenyan border strategically positions the industrial park for easy distribution of goods to the region and the entire continent.

9. Besides the industrial park, the rapid development of Mbale city has attracted universities, banks, hospitals, hotels, shopping malls and other facilities in large numbers to the city.

10. Government's development programmes such as Operation Wealth Creation, Youth Livelihood Programme, the Women's fund, coupled with good roads and infrastructure like the industrial park have made Mbale city's agriculture sector one of the most advanced in the country, turning it into East Arica's food basket for the country and the region.