By Andrew Irumba
Beijing: President Yoweri Museveni has blasted the World Bank for giving African countries loans and grants with strings attached, before hailing China for their support in aiding Africa’s development.
Museveni, who is in China for a four-day visit, told a meeting in Beijing Tuesday that Uganda Railways tried to get money to fund Railway construction from the World Bank but in vain. He revealed that the World Bank told Uganda that countries that “build railways use own money.” Museveni said such a statement from an economist that purports to support Africa’s transformation through Private-Sector led growth shows that some actors are not serious. He stated that “One of our engineers recently told me that the Uganda Railways tried in vain to get support from the World Bank until one official told them that countries that build railways do so with “their own money.” Museveni wondered how the private-sector can grow when it is bedeviled with expensive transport costs, expensive electricity costs or no electricity at all, expensive cost of money, etc. “It is against that negativity, that China’s solidarity should be measured. Government has for the last ten to fifteen years been getting support from Beijing,” Museveni revealed.
Presidesident Museveni is at the coordinators’ meeting on the implementation of the Follow-up Actions of the Beijing Summit of the China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). This is a follow up on the pledges made by China’s President to African Presidents last September. China pledged, among other things, to offer Africa USD60 billion in support. Museveni also praised China and Russia for the role played in the independence struggles of African Countries. “As we gather here, therefore, we cannot forget to salute the Communist Parties of China, the USSR, Cuba and the other socialist countries that constituted the third factor in our emancipation,” he said.
Uganda seeks to construct the Standard Gauge Railway from Busia border to Kampala – the first leg of the line. However, the government hopes that China can provide money for the project. On the other hand, Beijing is reluctant to commit now because it wants assurance from Kenya that its leg of the line will reach the Busia border to make business sense. Uganda needs up to USD3.2 billion for the SGR to Kampala. As part of the visit, President Museveni is expected to preside over the opening of the first ever China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo, which will be held in Hunan Province. The expo actualizes one of the resolutions arrived at last year in Beijing and is seen as “a new mechanism for commercial cooperation with Africa, a new platform to deliver the trade and economic measures of FOCAC, and a new window for sub-national business cooperation with Africa.”
