Oil drilling rig at Albertine Grabean in Uganda. PHOTO|THE CITIZEN CORRESPONDENT
By The Citizen Correspondent
In Summary
Kampala. The World Bank and
Ugandan government are in final stages of producing a new working
document (Country Economic Memorandum) to guide planners and policy
makers on how to manage oil and gas revenues in a way that benefits
society as a whole.
The new policy also takes into account mechanisms
of diversifying the economy by developing other sectors such as
agriculture, education, health, roads and energy infrastructure for
economic development. A joint team of senior government officials and
the World Bank recently met over a two-day retreat to prepare a joint
Country Economic Memorandum report, which will seek to identify key
opportunities and challenges to accelerate the quest of socio-economic
transformation, as Uganda aims at harnessing the opportunities of its
newly discovered natural resource wealth.
“The Country Economic Memorandum will emphasise
the steps Uganda is undertaking to embark on the exploitation of oil,”
said Mr Patrick Ocailap, the deputy secretary to the Treasury, in a
joint statement issued by the World Bank and Uganda in government on
Friday.
International experience suggests that the
discovery and exploitation of extractives has often turned out to be a
curse rather than a blessing for many countries.
However, the government will ensure that
opportunities from oil extraction translate into increased opportunities
for the Ugandan society as a whole.
International evidence shows that countries exporting a large variety of different products tend to have higher average incomes.
In Uganda, export diversification continues to be
low with most export earnings stemming from agricultural commodities
such as coffee, tea and cotton
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