Museveni launches Presidential CEO Forum

The Presidential CEO Forum (PCF) board has been inaugurated with Ms Barbara Mulwana as its chairperson.

President Museveni presided over the inauguration of the board at State House Entebbe on Tuesday, 24 August 2021.

PCF is envisioned to play a pivotal role in identifying pressing challenges to development and addressing the bottlenecks that have hindered an effective public-private working relationship.

In his remarks, the President urged the business community to adopt import substitution and export promotion if the country is to realise tangible economic progress.
“If you want the country to grow, you need to look at what business you are
doing. Does it bring blood here or does it suck blood and take it out? That
is the problem I used to have with KASITA. Their business was importing.
They even reached the extent of importing wigs. The main message is,
please minimize and eliminate importing,” he said.

Mr Museveni appreciated the value in having business forums like PCF
which he said help government in policy formulation. He directed that
government departments such as Prime Minister’s office and the Ministry of
Finance to always consult them before formulating policies.

He said government will in turn facilitate the business community with the
necessary infrastructure such as roads, cheap electricity, railway line and
reduce in the cost of money through Uganda Development Bank to lower
the cost of doing business in the country. He said that schools and
technical colleges should also step in to provide necessary skills that are
needed to do business.

Ms Mulwana said PCF will support development work by connecting the private sector to conversations on social economic transformation and policy direction.

Additionally, she said PCF will provide a direct interface with the Head of State in order to promote sound strategies for industrialization, value addition, and purposeful leadership.

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“Presidential CEO Forum is a direct and an adequate link between the private sector leadership, CEO’s from corporate institutions, and government executives with the aim of contributing to the National Development Agenda,” she explained.

“It is our aspiration that this forum, which has been founded on strict non-sectoral principles, shall provide the previously missing link between the public and private sector at both the decision making and implementation levels,” she added. Other PCF board members are Emmanuel Katongole, Douglas Opio, Irene Birungi, Prof Charles Kwesiga, Mathias Katamba, Dr Joseph Muvawala, Daniel Birungi and Agnes Kiraga. The others are Brenda Tibamwenda, Paul Isaac Musasizi, and Ruth Biyinzika.