Museveni speech at the East African Business Summit

I think the president Mr. Museven is right on track in his speech at the East African Business Summit.
We do not have to wait for the rest of the EA countries before we can improve our communication infrastructure. This is more of an internal problem for us to solve than it is external. The radio and cell phone investments have shown that we can over take our EA neighbors and let them follow suit. Why can’t we be an example in the railway sector as well.

With a well-developed rail system the possibilities are endless.
Can you imagine a fairly fast train from Mbarara to Kampala one can
actualy work in Kampala and live in Mbarara this is the same other
cities like Soroti, Kapchora, Gulu, and all the others.

Uganda needs a well-developed train system that has prompt services
too and is reliable. Although this sounds to big for us to handle it
can be achieved in small bits if we have committed leadership to do it.
We can start with connecting major cities like Jinja-Kampala, Kampala-Mbarara and so on. Eventually a network is formed from the city-to-city connections.

The investment will pay off with in a few years because of the increasing prices of Gasoline on the world market. Uganda cannot compete for oil on the world market with countries like China, India, the US, Europe and many other countries that are hungry for this scarce natural resource. Many countries are now taking major steps to reduce their dependence on oil. A good rail transportation system will help the country reduce this dependence as it also enhances development.

This will also reduce on the number of fatal road accidents that claim the lives of many productive Ugandans. More jobs will be created by such a project because it will run side by with the current transportation systems. Such a system will not only enhance public transportation it will also help with moving goods and commerce from place to place across the country.
Unfortunately up to this point Ugandans still regard trains as meant for ferrying goods and livestock. This attitude will change slowly if the system is made reliable and frequent enough to support daily commute.
Trains in the developed world are used as a major player in the area of public transportation. They are very cheap compared to other forms of transportation such as air travel and even road transportation. They also carry more loads. The benefits go on and on.

The government of Uganda needs to take on a project like this with committed leadership and not turn it over to private investors because we have all seen that these investors are interested in profit.

Many of the privatized institutions in the 1990s are no more as we speak. The road network that was developed by the NRM government in the 90s has turned out to be the biggest joke because a few years down the line the roads are in worse condition than they were before. Money was spent people became rich but the country gained nothing.
Privatization with out effectively combating corruption is wastage of time and resources.

So Mr. Museven instead of calling o the EA leaders who have little interest in our country’s development. Lets get down to work, it will be easier to invite them to join if we have something going than now with just mare dreams.