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M-7 gives formula on `promised land`
2008-02-28 10:10:16
By Adam Ihucha, Arusha
Uganda President Yoweri Museveni has come up with a formula that he says will enable the East African region to get its population out of poverty and take its people to a promised land of riches and prosperity.
Addressing the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) yesterday, Museveni-known in Uganda as Mr Vision- said industrial revolution was the only solution for the region to achieve economic prosperity.
The Ugandan President, who is also the chairman of East African Community, said: ``Agriculture alone, and worse still subsistence farming, cannot cater for the employment needs of the 120 million East Africans. It cannot earn enough foreign currency and cannot generate enough taxes.``
He said all EAC member states should work to bring in and facilitate more and more investors.
``We must combat all the negative anti-investor attitudes and practices such as corruption, indifferences to their needs and delays. We should bear in mind that as each of our economies grows, East Africa will be stronger,`` Museveni said.
Museveni was optimistic that the EAC was deepening its integration process.
``Today, the EAC trading bloc embraces a strong and large market of a combined population of 120 million people, has a land area of 1.8 million sq. kilometers with a combined GDP of US$ 41 billion,`` he said.
``It is the factor of size that helped India and China to frog-leap in terms of development and social transformation,`` Museveni said.
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