Indian Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi has begun a 2-day state visit to Uganda at the invitation of Presiden Yoweri Museveni
Mr. Modi who touched down at Entebbe International Airport on Tuesday afternoon, was received by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Sam Kuteesa.
Others at the airport included the Indian High Commissioner to Uganda, Mr. Ravi Sankar and Uganda’s envoy to India, Ms. Grace Akello, among others.
Mr. Modi was accompanied by a high-level delegation of senior officials of the Government of India and a large business delegation.
He was thereafter received at State House, Entebbe by President Museveni for bilateral talks.
During the discussions, Prime Minister Modi and President Museveni underlined the traditionally warm and close ties between Uganda and India.
Both sides agreed that bilateral relations have tremendous potential and reaffirmed the mutual desire to strengthen political, economic, commercial, defense, technical, educational, scientific and cultural cooperation.
President Museveni praised the contribution of the 30,000-strong Indian Diaspora towards Uganda’s national development and economic growth. India appreciated the significant role played by Uganda for economic integration and maintenance of peace and stability in the Region.
The two leaders reaffirmed the commitment to reinforce and build upon the successes and achievements of existing bilateral cooperation and underscored the importance of trade and economic ties between the two countries.
They both noted the current level of bilateral trade and expressed the desire to enhance and diversify the trade basket including addressing the trade imbalance and to facilitate trade between the two countries.
The two leaders also signed MoUs on Defence Cooperation, Visa exemption for Diplomatic and official passport holders,Cultural Exchange Programme and a Material Testing Laboratory, and directed concerned individuals to ensure that implementation of existing agreements, Memoranda of Understanding and other frameworks of cooperation, is fast-tracked.
The Indian Premier later addressed over 10,000 members of the Indian community at Kololo Independence ceremonial grounds on Tuesday evening.
This is Mr Modi’s second visit to Uganda after his first visit in 2007 when he held the position of Chief Minister.
After his visit in Uganda, Modi will fly to South Africa, where he will meet South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and also attend the BRICS Summit.
President Museveni’s Remarks:
I welcome His Excellency Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India, and his delegation, to Uganda on a two-day state visit.
It is the Prime Minister’s second visit to Uganda, the only difference being that in 2007, he was a chief minister of one of the states in India. Now, he is prime minister of all of India, and I believe the visit in 2007 gave him blessings that saw him elevated.
The Prime Minister has brought a lot of positive change in India. He has brought a business approach to running public affairs, and ignoring bureaucracy while promoting efficiency.
In my discussions with the Prime Minister, I have emphasized the need to cooperate in trade, investment and tourism. The idea is to work for mutual prosperity by buying each other’s products and services.
There has been an imbalance in trade but it is going down. Uganda is now importing less from India, while our exports are rising. In 2014, we imported goods and services worth $1.2b from India, but it has dropped to $736 million. Our exports to India are worth $44m compared to $24m in 2015.
To balance this trade, I have proposed three major interventions. First is tourism. We should encourage more Indians to tour Uganda and in the process bring dollars here. To promote this, I have asked His Excellency Modi to allow our revived Uganda Airlines directly fly to Bombay.
The second is healthcare. His Excellency Modi is proposing that Indian groups come and invest in Uganda. This will reduce the exodus of Ugandans going to seek specialized medical care in India and keep our money here.
The third is the generous offer by the Prime Minister of a $200m credit to Uganda. I will direct the Uganda Development Bank to oversee this facility with a view of using this money in value-addition enterprises.
The key areas to look at are; construction of electricity transmission lines, purchase of factory parts for initiatives like fruit and animal feed processing, shoe-making and local manufacture of solar-powered water pumps to support irrigation.
I thank the Prime Minister for offering to construct a Mahatma Gandhi convention centre, most likely in Jinja at the Source of the Nile, to support our tourism.
Again, I warmly welcome His Excellency Modi and his delegation to Uganda. Our elders cooperated with Nehru in fighting colonialism. I am glad we are now working with Modi to transform the Third world into first world countries.
