President Museveni has spoken out on his recent decision to ban the exportation of timber.
“There was somebody who did not understand our decision. Recently I banned the export of timber,” he said on Thursday while addressing the 4th Presidential CEO Forum held at Kiira Motors Vehicle Plant, Jinja.
“I said nobody should export timber, which is unprocessed. The furniture in the State House which we built in 2007 was all imported. This is why I quarrel with the comptroller who was there at that time. How can we sit on imported furniture here in Uganda?” he wondered.
President Museveni on May 24, 2023, issued an executive order and banned charcoal burning and illegal timber production in the country to control deforestation.
“You don’t make a plane, a computer, or medicine, you can’t even make furniture, what sort of people are these? Then they say they are experts, experts of what? Ignorance?”
He added: “That is why I cannot support the export of raw timber and the import of furniture.”
Stop frustrating investors
The president used the same occasion to warn politicians and government officials who frustrate investors.
“In Serbia, I pointed out that the whole of Africa has got a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 2.5 trillion dollars. That economy is smaller than the economy of India, Germany, Japan, China and the USA,” he said.
“This is a big shame to African leaders and these people they call Ministers of Finance, Planning and all that. We have been having Opposition not only from external players but the internal ones; such as politicians. We bring investors, and somebody goes to Parliament and starts insulting them saying they are thieves.”
He said a country like South Korea does not have the resources that Uganda has, but they are very smart.
“They are using mainly, intellectual labour. I appeal to everybody concerned to wake up. The transport economy is worth USD 17 trillion, and Africa is getting none of that. All that is going to other people,” he stated.