Speaker, Rebecca Kadaga is disappointed with the preparations by government ahead of the Dubai Expo 2020 calling for better preparations by the Trade and Finance ministries.
In her communication while chairing the sitting of the House on Tuesday, 13 August 2019, Kadaga said that no efforts had been made to brand the stall set up for Uganda ahead of the Expo.
“No budget provision was made for this event in this financial year and I want to demand an explanation from the Trade Minister as to why no money has been provided for this urgent matter,” Kadaga said.
The Speaker told the House that other countries close to the Uganda stall including the United Arab Emirates and United Kingdom had already set up, which gave Uganda a bad image.
The Expo 2020 is a six month world expo that will be hosted in the United Arab Emirates beginning on 20 October 2020 under the auspices of the Bureau International des Expositions General Assembly.
Kasilo County MP, Hon. Elijah Okupa said the failure by Uganda to brand its stall is not good for the country’s image attributing it to limited resources.
“I visited Dubai recently and interacted with our Ambassador there who told me that they had not made progress because they were not given money to brand our stall for the Expo,” Okupa said.
MPs also said Uganda could risk losing the stall owing to the slow progress being made and urged Government to avail the necessary money.
“Uganda is one of the few countries with unique features and it is important that Government sends money so that our pavilion is fully constructed so that we can showcase our beauty,” said Hon. Jalia Bintu (NRM, Masindi District)
State Minister for Trade, Hon. Micheal Werikhe told the House that the concerted efforts were by the Finance Ministry to avail fundingtowards the set up of the Uganda stall.
State Minister for Finance, Hon. David Bahati promised to return to the House with a way forward on facilitating Uganda’s presence at the Expo 2020.
“We are indeed working with the Ministry of Trade to see what we can do to save Uganda’s image at this Expo and if need be, we can organize a supplementary budget for that purpose,” Bahati said.
