Uganda: Uganda Asks China to Fund Railway Line
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The Monitor (Kampala)
October 25, 2006
Posted to the web October 24, 2006
Posted to the web October 24, 2006
Yasiin Mugerwa
Kampala
Kampala
AFTER failure to hasten plans of a proposed joint railway project, that would
facilitate trade between Uganda and Southern Sudan, due to financial constraints, the government has now turned to China for technical and financial support.
In the latest development, Mr John Nasasira, the Minister of Works has already met his Sudanese counterpart to agree on a joint proposal to be presented to the Chinese government for financing of the Packwach-Arua, Orabayi-Yei-Juba-Wau railway line.
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"As government, we are confident this project will take off immediately the Chinese government accepts to help us. Once the project is complete the trade barriers between Uganda and Sudan will be removed to help people do business," Nasasira said in a statement on October 10.
Nasasira said the proposed railway link would connect the existing network between the two states and would provide a solution to cargo that is expected to move through the trans-Africa link between Cairo, Khartoum and Kampala.
"We realised that the high transport costs involved, have for long increased the cost of doing business and many traders have either lost or passed the burden to final consumers. This is bad for business and will be solved by this intervention," the statement
Daily Monitor has seen, reads in part.
A joint railway project, however, was agreed upon in a recent meeting held in Khartoum after the two countries failed to meet the undisclosed cost to handle the project. The proposal would be immediately presented to the Chinese government for technical and financial support to help the project kick-off.
Nasasira told Daily Monitor that further consultations are going to be made with the government of southern Sudan to prepare another joint proposal for the development of road networks that connect the two states.
"We have agreed that in addition to the railway network, Gulu-Atiak-Nimule-Juba Malakai, Arua-Kobok-Oraba-Kaija-Yei-Juba among other roads, are going to be considered in the proposal to Chinese government," Nasasira
said.
The Chinese proposal comes barely six months, after the Chinese Prime Minister, Mr Wen Jiabao's visit to Uganda to discuss areas of economic integration and investment.
The Uganda-Southern Sudan railway project is an immediate follow-up to another proposed line linking Uganda with Dar-e-Salaam Port in Tanzania.
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