PRESENTED TO

WAIPA’S 21ST WORLD INVESTMENT CONFERENCE – GENERAL ASSEMBLY

OCTOBER 13 – 14TH 2016

By Sheila K MugyenziDeputy Director, Communications

Uganda Investment Authority Promoting Uganda

U G A N DA In Uganda you can stand in the best of both

halves of the world! The Equator which dividesthe world into the Northern and Southernhemisphere passes right through 13 countriesand Uganda is one of them. It’s an amazingfeeling!

Home to the largest tropical lake in the world(shared with Kenya and Tanzania) - Lake Victoria(Africa’s largest) is the second largest freshwater lake in the world.

Uganda is one of the world’s major Coffeegrowers especially Robusta. Some Arabica is alsogrown in different highland areas. The quality issimply…….

Has the highest concentration of primates onearth, including the majestic mountain gorillafound in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest

Uganda alone boasts of an incrediblebird list of 1046 recorded and confirmedspecies of birds, representing over 10%of the world’s bird list and over 50% ofall the birds found on the Africancontinent. Together with Rwanda, thetwo countries offer the best birdwatching opportunities worldwide.Rwanda has over 700 species.

Uganda is a melting pot of cultures!There are about 40 tribes in 56indigenous communities

Population: 34.5 million (UBOS 2014)GDP: US$ 22.4 billion (2016 MFPED)

U G A N D A

Aerial View of the Capital City, Kampala (About 1.5 million people)

Strategically located

Welcoming people

W H Y U G A N D A

Resource Rich

Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) 1

Legislation

a semi-autonomous body under the Ministry of Finance, Planning &Economic Development (MFPED)

The Investment Code Act 1991 also sets up the governance structurewhich includes the Minister, Board of Directors and Executive Director

Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) 2

Divisions

There are 3 core divisions for investment promotion, investment facilitation& aftercare, and the enhancement of SMEs (largely domestic)

These three are supported by 3 Divisions, which include: LandsDevelopment, Finance & Administration and the Office of the ExecutiveDirector which provides Communication / PR, Research, Legal, Procurementand IT services

Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) 3

Services

UIA has been transformed into a one stop centre for investors to assist foreign and domestic investment in: business registration, investment licensing, environmental advice and compliance, taxation and immigration issues, as well as land acquisition for investment and aftercare services

Provision of investment information and brokerage of joint ventures

Facilitation of Small and Medium Enterprises (largely domestic)

Policy advocacy on behalf of private sector to Government

Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) 4

Service Delivery Mechanism

1. Physical one stop centre that hosts 6 agencies of government with investment related services (The digital portal www.ebiz.go.ug is being developed)

2. Development of bankable projects3. Organization of various fora to provide platforms for private sector networking4. Skills development and entrepreneurship training for SMEs to increase

competiveness5. Development of Industrial and business parks6. Targeted marketing to attract value adding investments in 4 priority sectors i.e.

agro processing, tourism, ICT and mineral beneficiation to create jobs and increase exports

7. Information dissemination through email, website, both Ugandan and foreign diplomatic missions and various social media

8. Mutually beneficial collaborations within the EAC and wider tripartite EAC-SADC –COMESA regions

Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) 4 Cont’d

Service Delivery Mechanism

9. Team Uganda initiated in 2002 as a proactive mechanism to bring together all MDAs relevant to investment in a bid to improve the business environment

10. UIA is Secretariat to the Presidential Investor Roundtable where the President invites domestic and foreign private sector members to advise him and his cabinet on investment enabling policy. The Office of the Prime Minister gives oversight to the implementation of approved recommendations.

11. In order to ensure balanced development all over the country, District Investment Committees have been created to ensure that district leadership is involved in investment matters.

12. A Diaspora Desk liaises with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Central bank and other entities to engage Ugandan Diaspora to invest back home. Every end of year, a Home is Best Summit is held to bring them up to speed with the business, social and political environment.

Status of FDI

Inward Outward Inward Outward Inward Outward Inward Outward Inward Outward

Uganda Kenya Tanzania Rwanda Burundi

2005-2007 605 0 267 23 640 0 40 4 0.4 0

2012 1205 46 259 16 1800 0 265 0 0 0

2013 1096 -47 514 6 2087 0 258 14 7 0.3

2014 1059 27 1051 28 2049 0 459 2 47 0

2015 1057 0.3 1437 217 1532 0 471 0 7 0.2

-500

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

Mill

ion

s (U

S $

)

FDI Flows in the EAC (Millions of US Dollars

Source: World Investment Report 2016 by UNCTAD

Challenges

• Outdated and inadequate provisions in the investment code

• Slow pace of Parliament to pass enabling law (Investment Amendment Bill 2015)

• There are instances of political pressure especially when it comes to land allocations for investment

• Inadequate funding for marketing Uganda’s investment opportunities, information dissemination, developing viable bankable projects and the acquisition of land to establish serviced / ‘ready to enter’ industrial and business parks

• Harmonizing regional policies to spur investment

• Most of the incentives have been scrapped

Recommendations / Strategy Ahead

1. Government should expedite the passing of the Amendment bill into law

2. Cabinet should also review other laws that affect Investors

3. There is a need to revisit the incentive regime, especially in services i.e. health, education and other sectors that have the capacity to create a lot of employment and meet the needs of the communities. Incentives could be tagged to the number of jobs created

4. Moving forward, Government should enter to Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangements with willing investors to develop the various industrial and business parks, as well as work spaces and incubation centres for domestic SMEs

5. There is a need to increase funding and staffing at UIA to match the level of expectation created by the strategic plan

Recommendations / Strategy Ahead

6. One million job strategy in UIA’s new Strategic Plan (2016-2020)

Through business linkages, innovative approaches to aftercare, SMEmentorship programmes, development of Business and Industrial Parks,Science and Technology Parks and SME work spaces spread across differentregions of Uganda to distribute spread of industries (regional balanceddevelopment)

8. Support a SME development fund

9. Collaborate more regionally :

a) with IPAs and investment relevant organizations e.g. IPAs in the East African Community (EAC) and COMESA Regional Investment Agency . Uganda alone is a small market. Successful investment promotion is faster achieved when resources are combined

Recommendations / Strategy Ahead

b) participate in the facilitation of the COMESA-EAC-SADC Free Trade Area (FTA), commonly known as the Tripartite FTA (26 countries (48% of the AU membership/ 632 million people/ Combined GDP of US$ 624 billion). A stronger and larger market provides solutions to job creation, thereby ending poverty and improving peoples’ livelihoods, which is a significant step towards enabling the region to expedites the journey to the achievement of the SDGs

Uganda Investment AuthorityTel: +256 414 301000

Email: info@ugandainvest.go.ugWebsite: www.ugandainvest.go.ug

Sheila K Mugyenzi: skarungi@ugandainvest.go.ug