President Museveni has been on a
crusade and has personally traversed the globe to wow foreign investors with
the country’s investment potential. As a payback, a number of investors,
conspicuously and predominantly of Asian origin have brought their investments
to the country. This skewed investor phenomenon is a predicament by government
actions that tend to repel other investors from Europe and America.
Corruption by government bureaucrats
makes it hard for an ethical investor from Europe or American to make it
through, leaving the game to Asians who can maneuver through the red tape by
complying with bribery demands and trickery. Secondly, the governments paranoia
of being held accountable by America and western democracies has pushed it into
courtship with Asian countries especially china of recent, who can perpetuate
impunity and hardly have any interest in domestic politics of the country.
This trend is detrimental both in
short term and long term as it undermines the intended benefits of transforming
the country’s economy and its people, how? The country is losing investments of
cutting edge technologies from America and Europe. This polarized investor
presence creates resentment in the local population that may culminate into a
similar or a repeat of 1972 history of Indian expulsion. This is not to forget
the xenophobic tendencies as most recently witnessed in South Africa.
The bigger problem though is that
the local population that hoped to earn a better living through jobs created is
getting a raw deal. The outrageously very small pennies paid in wages and unfavorable
working conditions only enslave the locals to exploitation with no hope beyond subsistence
living. It cannot be left unsaid of the discrimination in allocation of jobs
that matter, these being given to fellow foreigners at the expense of un employed
yet able and qualified citizens. With this, even skills transfer is a dream
further away from reality.
The indigenous potential investor’s
efforts are frustrated and pushed to the periphery as government allocates
land, business contracts and investment incentives skewed to favor foreigners. This
is dangerous as a country cannot enjoy the trickle down effects out of successful
investments, with an already existing policy of open profit repatriation.
Therefore, that said the government
should re-think and act fast for the plight of its citizenry. The local
investors, big or small should be budded and given more preference over any
other. An investor survey jointly done
by UBOS, UIA and Ministry of Finance indicated that domestic private investors
created more jobs compared to their foreign counterparts.( New Vision, May 2,
2013 Pg.16) The Asian tigers transformed by organizing and promoting small
scale enterprises/industries but not through setting huge manufacturing
factories.
The government’s paranoia of American,
European investors should be rejected and neutralized with better governance
practices. The red tape should be overhauled and professional work ethics
implored while handling investors seeking guidance from government agencies.
Better policies and laws should
be drafted and implemented to protect citizens from unfair exploitation. Such laws
should extend to protect the environment that investors seem to care less and
are ruthless to destroy it.
Author
Bruce Nkuba
nkubabruce@yahoo.com
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