The President made the plea on Wednesday at State House Entebbe where he received and hosted Turkish President, Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdogan who has been in the country on a 2-day official visit at the invitation of the President Museveni.
H.E Museveni told Erdogan that; “Our struggle is to have more entrepreneurs to transform the potential into opportunities. We have got scientists who have patent without money. The Government supports them but we have got several commitments.”
The Turkish leader, together with his wife, Ms. Emine Gulbaran, was accompanied by the Deputy Prime Minister, Veysi Kaynak, Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu and the Minister of Economy, Nihat Zeybekci.
He expressed his pleasure over President Erdogans visiting Uganda with a delegation of 115 business people. He said that the Uganda Government strongly encourages the system of the business community building, operating and later transferring to the Government the various projects.
He, therefore, directed the Ministry of Energy and Minerals to identify a suitable site on River Nile for the construction of a hydro power station adding that such a site should be allocated to a Turkish contractor.
President Museveni urged President Erdogan to look into the abundant opportunities in the steel processing industry in Uganda and revealed that Uganda has supported Turkish Contractors who are building roads in the country. He assured the delegation of continued support from the NRM Government.
In response, President Erdogan congratulated his host for starting a new term of office adding that the election result of 62% was such a big achievement.
“As your friends in Turkey, we will always be there to support you,” said Mr. Erdogan who observed that Uganda has a population of 38 million while Turkey has got 39 million people. He noted that this offered big markets for our goods and services.
