President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni yesterday evening received His Highness Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of United Arab Emirates (UAE) who was in the country on a one-day official visit.
During the meeting at State House Entebbe, President Museveni warmly welcomed Sheikh Abdullah to Uganda and thanked him and the UAE government for the long-standing friendship with the East African country.
“I welcome you to Uganda and thank you and your government for being ready to work with us,” he said.
“Our work with Arab countries is not new. We started with mainly North Africa;Egypt in the 1950s when we were fighting for independence, then Algeria after they got independence and later with Libya while Saudi we had cultural relations,”he added.
President Museveni also noted that the time he visited UAE in 2014, he saw a big potential for cooperation especially in areas of manufacturing, agro-processing, minerals,infrastructure, services that include tourism as well as defence.
He therefore called on the UAE companies to take interest in investing in Uganda if the two countries are to benefit from the complementarity that exists between the two countries. He said they can also invest in road tolls with the aim of linking Uganda with the common markets in neighboring countries which he said have huge potential for business.
On his part, Sheikh Abdullah conveyed greetings from the leadership of UAE to President Museveni as well as best wishes for development and prosperity to the people of Uganda.
He also expressed his country’s commitment to strengthening trade ties-and cooperation with Uganda as well as establishing effective development partnerships that support both countries’ aspirations for sustainable growth and prosperity.
Following the meeting, Sheikh Abdullah and President Museveni witnessed the signing of six Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) between the two countries.
The MoUs that were signed included that of Works and Transport, that of Diplomatic Training and Capacity Building, Visa Exemption Agreement, Joint Development Agreement, E-government and Digital transformation as well as Protection of Investment.
