On 15th February 2017, Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) held a meeting with the leaders of Chinese Associations in Uganda and the Commercial Attaché at the Chinese Embassy. The objective of the meeting was to among other facilitation reasons, promote and retain value adding foreign Investments from China. The meeting, which was held at the UIA offices, discussed the modalities for facilitating business growth and value addition to help create more jobs in Uganda.

During the meeting, a number of issues arose, including; challenges faced by the Chinese Investors. UIA allayed the anxiety among the Chinese business community to boost their confidence in conducting business in Uganda. The anxiety was caused by the concerns raised towards the end of last year, 2016, by Parliament regarding the participation of foreign traders in petty businesses. This caused uncertainty among the Chinese business community in Uganda. It was against this background that a meeting was held with the Chinese Commercial Attachee of Foreign Missions and the respective Business Associations in Uganda.

The meeting highlighted some actions that could bridge the gap between the Chinese community and government.

These included;

• Promotion of the services at UIA One Stop Centre (OSC) for Investors to the entire investment community in an effort to improve the ease of doing business in the country

• Sharing of updated Government information with the public on a regular basis

• Engaging different existing Investment fora on a regular basis to fast track the problems faced by investors and identify gaps.

• Correct the wrong perceptions on Chinese investors because this is killing the morale of genuine investors.

• Use the Existing Associations as Ambassadors to reach out to other Chinese companies back home

• Consider the reduction of work permit fees, which is considered to be high.

Promotion of the services at UIA One Stop Centre (OSC) for Investors to the entire investment community in an effort to improve the ease of doing business in the country

It was agreed that a follow up meeting was necessary and would be held on 11th April 2017 to bring together all the existing Chinese companies in the country to lay strategy for the promotion of investment from China and more improvement on the ease of doing business in Uganda.