Uganda: Q1 Investments Up

May 29, 2012 (allAfrica) -- The investment landscape from January to March has showed an increase in foreign direct investments particularly from emerging markets.

Patrick Bitature, Chairman of UIA

Among the country sources of investment that Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) licensed in the first quarter of 2012 were companies from Turkey, Lebanon, Trinidad & Tobago and Sweden. These are non traditional investment sources for Uganda.

Mr. Patrick Bitature, the Chairman of the UIA explained in Kampala that the total planned value of investment recorded during the period was $806.6m from 62 licensed projects from which it is hoped 6,237 jobs will be created.

The top 10 country sources of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the period were Sweden, India, China, Lebanon, United Kingdom, Trinidad & Tobago, Pakistan, Netherlands, Kenya, and South Korea.

The two projects from Sweden are in the forestry and mining sectors.

"UIA continues to register a lot of foreign interest in the mining sector since the release of the results of the geological survey that showed commercial deposits of a wide range of minerals," said Bitature. "Lebanese companies, which have traditionally invested in the trade and services sector, have in the last quarter registered two projects in manufacturing and mining."

The energy / oil and water sector recorded the highest value of planned investment from four projects, followed by mining; real estate & business services; agriculture & forestry; and manufacturing of consumer goods.

Most of the investment missions that visited Uganda in the last two quarters have been mainly from China, Turkey and India.

Individual business missions have come from South Africa, Italy, Netherlands, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates.

It is hoped that at the end of May, UIA will maximise the opportunity for investment promotion in the country's priority sectors and facilitate joint ventures, as well as green field investment.

The first 'Uganda Gulf Cooperation Council Investment Conference' starting May 28 is hoped to attract 70 to 100 business people from Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE and Oman - the six countries that comprise the Gulf Cooperation Council.

It is evident, that as different parts of the world economy go through recession, recovery, expansion or risk, Uganda is among the countries in Africa with vast and under exploited resources, therefore the best suited for viable investment.

Bitature argues that Uganda is well positioned to benefit from this if sufficient infrastructure is in place.

Uganda in the last quarter of 2011 planned investment value of $113m with 7789 jobs created from 56 projects.

With in the East Africa in terms of local investments, Kenya had 4,367 planned jobs from 18 projects; Rwanda had 119 jobs from two projects in the last quarter while Tanzania had only 61 jobs from one project. Uganda topped the region with, 27,026 job opportunities from 114 registered projects in the quarter.