Foreign Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud was amazed to see the beautiful landscape of Uganda and find soft-spoken people. He has planned to send a business delegation soon.
The minister returned to Dhaka on Tuesday after attending the NAM summit in Kampala.
Sharing his first foreign travel experience after assuming the ministry, he said he had no idea before that "Uganda is a beautiful country".
“I also met with our Bangladeshi people who have been living there for a long time. I met a person who has been living there for 42 years. He said even after midnight you will not face any security challenges in Kampala. People are very soft-spoken,” he said.
“I can see a lot of opportunities on the agriculture front. We can take land on lease. In fact, a discussion was going on to take 20,000 hectares land on lease. We can cultivate cotton and palm oil there. We are planning to send a business delegation soon,” the foreign minister said.
Apart from travelling time, the foreign minister got two full days in Kampala that he said utilized fully.
“I had 17 bilateral meetings apart from attending the main summit. In one day, I had 12 bilateral meetings. It was so hectic even the foreign secretary told me that he never saw 12 bilateral meetings in a single day in his career,” he said.
Uganda is an East African landlocked country. It is a market-based economy rich in natural resources and has one of the fastest-growing and youngest populations in the world.
Top prospects include agriculture and estimated recoverable oil reserves of over 1.4 billion barrels, and with first oil expected in 2025, according to the International Trade Administration of the US.
