The Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Rt Hon Thomas Tayebwa, has cautioned investors to comply with the country's tax policies to ensure growth of their businesses both domestically and in the region.
"Government has put in place an environment that can enable you to grow, there is peace and security... You have to pay tax, whatever you're asking us, we need money for it, the first yardstick for your business to grow is on tax compliance," he said.
Tayebwa made the remarks while addressing Chief Executive Officers from different sectors during the 7th Bi-annual Private Sector CEOs Retreat at Uganda Wildlife Education Centre in Entebbe last week. He stressed that tax compliance is critical for business success and attracting partners.
"Tax compliance is a very important component of business success, if you're going to get an international partner when your company has matured, most of them after asking your turnover, the next thing is how much you pay in taxes and if you start telling them for us we manage taxes, that's an immediate turnoff," he said.
Tayebwa further urged entrepreneurs to localise supply chains so that Ugandan firms and SMEs can feed their factories and ease traceability of products.
"Ugandans, we are the ones who say we need local content, we need to supply government, but when in your factories, we don't allow Ugandans to supply you and you go to China yourself," he said.
The Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation in the Office of the President, Jonard Asiimwe Akiiki, said innovators need to open their minds to commercialisation to earn revenue.
"We must shorten the journey from prototype to bankable enterprise and coordinate our institutions so innovators do not spend their best years working from office to office. We must use procurement strategically. Expand patient capital, enforce quality, support certification, and open regional and continental markets," he said.
He added: "Uganda will not become a USD 500 billion economy by producing 10 times more of the same things in the same way. That tenfold growth requires a more complex economy, one that converts knowledge into products, raw materials into sophisticated exports and Ugandan companies into globally competitive enterprises."
The Minister for Energy and Mineral Development, Dr Monica Musenero Masanza, said producers need to embrace industrialisation to add value and fetch higher profit.
"The biggest driver of gainful employment in any nation is industrialisation, without industrialisation, you will not have services, primary production of agriculture will struggle because they do not have the industries to push them ahead," she said.
Chief Executive Officer of the Presidential CEO Forum, Irene Birungi Mugisha, said industries should be encouraged to manufacture products locally to earn higher foreign exchange.
"They don't have to be built by Ugandans, but they have to be built in Uganda, and they are adding value to every sector, most of that money goes into products, many of these products do not need rocket science to manufacture. All we need are courageous Ugandan investors or people who are manufacturing these things to come and set up home here," she said.
