INDUSTRIES,
Trade and Investment Minister Charles Mwijage has challenged local
engineers to grab opportunities and set up industries to aid
implementation of the government’s industrial economy drive.
Addressing Industrial Forum here
yesterday, the minister said engineers can use their expertise to set up
industries based on current products demand, citing cooking oil and
sugar production as among the potential areas.
“We still have vast land to produce
sunflower for cooking oil and sugarcane for sugar. But, the natural
resource has not been sufficiently utilised to provide the industries
with the raw materials,” said the minister during the forum.
The forum, which was organised by
Engineers Registration Board (ERB) as part of its 50th anniversary
brought together engineers to discuss their contribution towards the
industrial economy. Mr Mwijage further asked local engineers to
facilitate establishment of drugs factories to relieve the government a
burden of importing drugs, saying that the government spends at least
1.3tri/- for drugs importation.
ERB Chairman Prof Ninatubu Lema said
engineers were ready to support the industrial economy, pointing out
that the country has so far 21,746 registered engineers.
He noted that the main goals of ERB is to
regulate and monitor engineering practices in the country through
promotion of engineering excellence among local engineers, engineering
technicians and engineering consulting firms with a view to enhance
competitiveness and professionalism.
He said the event was organised for
engineers to discuss the performance of the industry for the past 50
years, adding that the participants will discuss investment
opportunities for engineers. “Four papers will be presented for
discussion during the forum session including Women Engineers for
Industrial Development,” said the ERB Chairman.
Prof Lema thanked the government for the
trust it has demonstrated in local engineers in implementation of the
country’s mega projects, saying mega projects were currently carried out
by local engineers.
No comments :
Post a Comment