East African construction companies urged to strengthen partnerships to bolster competitiveness
Construction companies in the East African region have been urged to strengthen partnerships in order to build capacity and to enhance regional competitiveness.
The call was made on Friday during a virtual seminar organised by Ethiopian Embassy in Uganda and Uganda National Building and Civil Engineering Contractors (UNBCEC).
Under the theme “Building Capacity through Partnership to enhance regional Competitiveness”, the aim of the seminar was to look into ways of partnership and share experience and potentials of the Ethiopian construction works corporations to Ugandan companies and stakeholders in order to utilize the untapped potentials of the construction sector in East Africa.
In her opening remarks, Ethiopian Ambassador to Uganda, Alemtsehay Meseret, noted that the seminar will go a long way in contributing to facilitate sharing of information and experiences in the construction sector in Ethiopia and Uganda.
Ambassador Alemtsehay emphasised the need to utilize the untapped opportunities of the sector such as in quality infrastructure development in the region.
“In the last couple of years, Ethiopia has embarked on giant construction works, including the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) by which the construction sector has been progressing well and capacitated local companies with knowledge, finance and experience in the sector. In this regard, Local companies in Ethiopia and Uganda and other companies in East Africa should combine their knowledge, expertise and resources to capacitate themselves in order to emerge competitive in the region and beyond.” Meseret noted.
Esaw Maza, the head of Business Development Affairs at the Ethiopian Construction Works Corporation, revealed the corporation’s potential areas of engagement and the capital to the participants.
He noted that the corporation has developed immense potential and experience through working and engaging in various areas of construction sectors such as in water and Dam infrastructure, road and railroad infrastructure, Real-estate development and housing construction as well as producing construction input for the company itself.
He also revealed the corporation’s interest to partner and joint venture with companies working in the sector in East Africa, including Uganda.
The Commissioner of Construction Standards Quality Management at the Ministry of Works and Transport, Moses Odongo, disclosed that the construction sector is a big business in Uganda and such platform is important to create partnership and to look into opportunities available in the region as well as to make the sector deliver better.
In her concluding remark, Ambassador Alemtsehay reiterated Ethiopia’s readiness to work together with Uganda for creating enabling atmosphere in the construction sector in which the local companies and contractors be benefitted and build their capacity to be competitive in the region.
