Uganda’s President, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has commended the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) Engineering Brigade and billionaire businessman, Dr. Sudhir Ruparelia for demonstrating enhanced local capacity in construction by finishing key NAM Summit infrastructure projects in a record time.
Uganda has just successfully hosted the 19th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit and the Third South Summit of the G77 and China, at the Ruparelia Group’s 105-acre lakeside resort complex that is home to the Speke Resort Munyonyo and Munyonyo Commonwealth Resort.
To host the summits the Uganda Development Corporation (UDC), the investing arm of the Government of Uganda entered into a joint venture agreement with Ruparelia Group to construct a one-of-a-kind 4400-seater Speke Resort Convention Centre. In addition to the 4400-seater auditorium, the convention centre will also has a multipurpose hall, 12 high-end conference/breakaway meeting rooms and a floating restaurant that can host more than 900 guests.
Groundbreaking for the site took place in January 2023 and construction took one year.
Speaking in a national address to mark the 38th victory anniversary of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party, President Museveni also congratulated Ugandan for hosting the two significant meetings.
“More importantly look at the facilities we built partly for this occasion, but also to improve the infrastructure of the country. Some of them were built in one year. Look at the new terminal built by the UPDF Engineering Brigade. Look at the Conference Centre built by Sudhir’s Company (Ruparelia Group) using government money,” Mr, Museveni said.
Bob Okodi, Amref Health Africa Uganda CFO, On Purpose-Driven Finance and Measuring Impact in Lives, Not Margins“One of the delegates; one of the presidents was asking me, was it the Chinese who built this? I said No. This was built by our local company. There’s nothing we cannot do,” he added.
Speaking about the significance of the meetings and why the government invested significantly into hosting the meetings, he said the meeting attracted 1,918 delegates from 129 countries, including sixteen presidents, nine vice presidents, sixteen prime ministers, and seven special categories.
“These countries have 6.6 billion people and 80% of the human race,” he reiterated.
The Speke Resort Convention Centre was developed within the 105-acre luxury resort complex. Combined the three properties, bring to Uganda’s hospitality sector about 40 indoor meeting and banqueting facilities of various sizes, with a capacity to host 19,000 people! This is in addition to several other outdoor venues. Away from meeting venues, the complex boasts 476 accommodation rooms, including 54 presidential suites and 3 ballrooms.
In preparation for the meetings, the UPDF Engineering Brigade worked on the upgrade of the Entebbe International Airport, including the departure wing of the airport in time for the two meetings. Several airlines, including 32 private jets flew into Entebbe for the meetings.
