Speech by Mr. Ramathan Ggoobi
Permanent Secretary/Secretary to the Treasury
Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development
Delivered at the 2024 Uganda National Journalism Awards Gala
Mestil Hotel, Kampala, Uganda
31 July 2024
The European Union representative here today; The Board Chair and Co-founders of the African Centre for Media Excellence, The Executive Director, African Centre for Media Excellence, All Invited Guests, The Media Fraternity, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good evening.
I am happy to be here. Thank you for inviting me.
Congratulations to all the media practitioners under the various categories for demonstrating competence in journalism practice.
Let me start by reminding all of us that Government was created to “Promote the common good” – placing the needs of people as a community above individual liberty and self-determination.
Thomas Jefferson, said way back in 1787, “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without the government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”
Why, because government without media is chaos. We need media to render accounts for the resources given to it by the citizen (money and human being). The media re the main channel of communication with the public.
Effective communication through media is key to government success. Media works as the “4th estate” in government.
You put forward view points and opinions and expose abuses. You also play an important role in political debates and decide what issues make the news. Thus, in an ideal world, media and the State should be friends, not adversaries.
Problem? Free press does not guarantee fair or accurate reporting. They pursue what is not in the public interest, but in the interest of the journalists or a minority.
At times some media practitioners turn opinion of the vocal minority into public opinion.
George Bernard Saw, said, way back in the 19th Century, “Newspapers are unable, seemingly, to discriminate between a bicycle accident and the collapse of civilisation.”
Noam Chomsky said, “The media typically have their own interest in determining which issues to raise in the public mind.”
Yet the Africa State has begun a profound transformation in which citizens are becoming more educated, more informed, and are demanding rights to exercise control over the institutions that once controlled them.
We really need to ask ourselves; are we still adhering to the “Principles of Media Ethics”?
- Truth and Accuracy – are we effectively cross-checking facts?
- Independence – Are we avoiding acting on behalf of special interests?
- Fairness and Impartiality – Are our stories balanced? Is the “Fairness Doctrine” still adhered to, or has it turned into a myth?
- Humanity – Are you taking trouble to minimise harm of your publications?
- Accountability – Are we correcting the errors in sincere (not cynical) ways?
I want you to know that some of us in Government acknowledge the critical role the media play in promoting national building, economic development and accountability.
However, you need to deal with misinformation and outright abuse of the power you have. Particularly unedited and unregulated media.
State of the Economy
The economy has fully recovered from the various shocks, crises and false alarms.
- Growth is good, and projected to get better.
- Inflation remains contained within the target rate, despite recent slight increase on the account of food crop inflation.
- The shilling has remained relatively stable despite depreciation pressures at the beginning of this year.
- Interest rates have remained broadly stable, albeit still higher than required.
- Exports have increased to over USD 7.5 billion, up from USD 4.9 billion in 2023.
- FDI inflow to Uganda increased to USD 2.9 billion last year, making Uganda the 4th top country in attracting FDI in Africa.
Government has been deliberate with its fiscal policy and monetary policy and we have been working in a coordinated manner with Bank of Uganda. These efforts have been supplemented by the relatively good weather and improving global economic conditions.
The Growth Strategy
We have started implementing the Tenfold Growth Strategy. We aspire to grow the size of the economy to USD 500 billion by 2040 by leveraging the ATMS:
- Agro-Industrialisation and light manufacturing. The target by FY 2039/40 is US$20 billion.
- Tourism development. Target is US$50 billion.
- Mineral-based manufacturing including petroleum products. The target is US$25 billion.
- Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) including ICT. This is a multiplier anchor programme with a huge economy-wide impact.
So what is new? What do we want to do differently to achieve this good ambition? We want to:
- Take full advantage of the new ways of doing things (emerging technologies),
- Invest in new sources of growth (emerging sectors), and
- Leverage the new trade and economic relationships (emerging markets).
We are going to:
- Clean-Up: by fully implementing and enforcing the existing laws and regulations.
- Team-Up: Focus all stakeholders on one goal and use a phased approach to addressing the implementation gaps.
- Skill-Up: Arrest the declining trend in labour productivity and mainstream manpower planning.
- Green-Up: Preserve and grow environmental assets.
- Link-Up: Develop and deepen regional value chains and cross-border infrastructure connectivity for market access and penetration.
The key priorities for the budget during FY 2024/25 include among others:
- Investing in the people of Uganda through health, education, provision of clean water for human consumption and for production; and for social protection.
- Peace and security (of life and property) for all the people of Uganda.
- Road maintenance, bridges, rehabilitation of the Meter Gauge Railway and construction of the Standard Gauge Railway and water transport.
- The knowledge economy: research and development.
- Value addition, by leveraging on the existing infrastructure.
- Wealth creation initiatives like PDM, Emyooga, ACF, Microfinance Support Centre, etc.
- Management of natural disasters, and regional and international commitments.
Engage with the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development as a trusted source on information about the economy.
We commend media for exposing corruption. As His Excellency the President promised you, the fight is corruption.
I want to thank the African Centre for Media Excellence for not only organising these awards, but also continuously improving the media landscape in the country.
I once again congratulate all the winners tonight and urge you to continue practising responsible journalism in the quest to build a better country for all of us.
For God and My Country.
###
