IT IS ‘STATE OF THE NATION’ ADDRESS TODAY
President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni will today address the nation as he delivers his ‘State of the Nation’ speech to parliament, now that his government has been sworn in and commenced work.
This will be followed on Thursday by the reading of the national budget by the new Minister for Finance Maria Kiwanuka although she is thought to have had little final input into this year’s budget proposals due to the time frame between her appointment, vetting and swearing in yesterday. As said in a related article yesterday, the tourism sector does not expect much of a change for 2011/12 but has high hopes that the new minister, herself from a successful business empire in the private sector turned politician to change things for the better, will in fact for 2012/13 inject greater resources in the industry to ensure exponential growth and fulfill at last the tourism industry’s potential for the good of the nation.
The President himself is today expected to address the concerns of the people of Uganda over rising fuel and food prices but also about corruption in government and will outline his policies to combat these challenges during the near and medium term future. Much hope is also now based on the rapid coming on line of Uganda’s oil resources, generally seen as a financial savior for being able to self finance projects like power plants, roads and highways, schools and health centres without having to rely on donors and development partners who often sway in their support as the political wind blows, that is until their envoys’ cars are stoned by the rowdy hooligans of their political choice in Uganda as seen recently.
With Total and the Chinese Overseas Oil Corporation now part of Tullow Oil in Uganda, the investments needed will undoubtedly accelerate and when the oil flows fuel prices too are set to become affordable as they are in other Gulf countries pumping crude, as Uganda intends to refine ‘at home’ and then put ‘white fuels’ on the market for domestic consumption and export.
Details of the Presidential address will overnight become available via www.newvision.co.ug which is Uganda’s leading daily newspaper and respected for its balanced reporting.
