Its oil reserves may make the headlines, but Uganda’s minister for trade and industry tells fDi that the country is pursuing diversification and removing barriers to growth, particularly in its underdeveloped agribusiness sector.

With a rising GDP, a perceived overdependence on its oil industry and a deteriorating business environment, according to the World Bank, Uganda's economic progress is difficult to gauge. The country's minister of state for foreign affairs remains confident, however, that government initiatives and heavy investment in infrastructure are moving it in the right direction.

At the World Economic Forum meeting on Africa in Cape Town in May, fDi spoke to leading officials from three African countries that are implementing strategies to improve their records for attracting foreign investment.

Speaking to fDi at the IMF/World Bank annual meetings in Tokyo, finance ministers from Côte d’Ivoire, Lesotho, Rwanda and Uganda discuss the very different challenges their countries face when it comes to attracting investment from both stagnant developed markets and newly active emerging markets, particularly those within Africa. 

The recent discovery of oil in Uganda has the potential to transform the country. However, its finance minister is keen to avoid the mistakes of others, and any oil revenues will be spent on public services and transforming the country's export strategy into a more Africa-centric one.

The aviation industry was one of the main casualties of the global economic crisis in many regions around the world, but in the Middle East its growth has continued unabated. Central to this growth has been the expansion of Qatar Airways, which, according to its CEO, has no plans to slow down.

Oil reserves discovered in Uganda have the potential to transform the economic status of one of the world's least developed countries. But ongoing political friction in the country and indecision over the laws pertaining to the extraction of the oil are causing concerns about just how beneficial the money from these reserves will be to the country as a whole.