By: Mugerwa Michael
Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja met the American Ambassador to Uganda Natalie Brown to review the development cooperation between the two countries. Emphasis was put on the need to have a shift from providing aid to strengthening trade and investment. The meeting took place at the Office of the Prime Minister in Kampala.
The Prime Minister welcomed the new US Ambassador and assured her about Uganda’s continued excellent bilateral relations with the United States of America. ‘Uganda has put trade and investment at the center of its foreign policy’, she said. The Premier welcomed the U.S government’s effort to support bilateral trade and investment between the two countries.
About Uganda’s fight against COVID-19, the Prime Minister thanked the US for providing vaccines and PPE’s. She said government has planned to open up the economy in January next year. ‘We are mobilizing the population to get vaccinated’, she said. By December this year, seven million people are expected to have been fully vaccinated.
The Prime Minister also informed the Ambassador about the policy shift in managing disasters in Uganda. She said government was considering urbanization, re-afforestation and buying alternative land to settle disaster victims. ‘Emphasis has been put on gazetting boundaries on river banks to avoid soil erosion’, she said.
On her part, the American Ambassador Natalie Brown expressed concern about a number of issues which included delayed opening of schools, merging of government institutions and suspension of the Democracy Governance Facility that was funding NGO’s.
Commenting about merging of Government agencies, the Prime Minister informed the Ambassador that this was done to avoid duplication of services and save resources. END
