Month: March 2023

As we celebrate the International Women’s Day, the IGP has extended best wishes to all women in the UPF and the world at large. The theme this year is; Innovation and Technology, for gender equality. We therefore, celebrate all female officers, volunteers and staff.

In the UPF Gender Equality and Empowerment remains a priority, both in our policing operations and leadership roles. The UPF continues to see a steady progress with the number of women in the force increasing and that of women in senior roles of leadership.

The IWD theme is inspiring, because equality for all is essential, Gender equality works both ways and its important to have equal levels of access to opportunities to enable all of our employees to reach their full potential. We are also grateful and respectful to the women and men, who have campaigned for gender equality for many years. At the UPF, we are fortunate that our organization recognizes and celebrates the need for equality for all.

We are supporting the theme and continue to encourage all women in the UPF to aim higher to achieve what they are capable of and to believe in themselves. What’s encouraging is that today, there are more women in policing, more women in being promoted into higher ranks and in specialist roles in IT, Forensics, top leadership.

Source: Uganda Police Force

Senior Presidential Advisor John Nagenda has been laid to rest at his country home in Bwotansimbi village Buloba parish in Wakiso district.

Nagenda died on Saturday; he had been admitted to Medipal Hospital in Kampala. His demise was announced by Milly Babalanda, the minister in charge of presidency.

"I regret to announce the passing on of Senior Presidential Advisor on Media Matters, Mzee John Nagenda, who passed on at Medipal in Kampala He was unique, principled and knowledgeable. His service will be dearly missed,” Babalanda announced on Twitter on Saturday, March 4 2023.

Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja represented President Yoweri Museveni at the burial.

Besides his other roles, Nagenda was an inspirational and critical writer in Saturday Vision, where he was a celebrated columnist for the last two decades.

Buloba residents grateful

As the country has largely and primarily appreciated Nagenda as an outstanding writer, the residents of Buloba have lost a hero.

To them, he was the pride of Buloba, who did not stop at employing their children but was also lenient with the squatters on his land.

“It is bad news for us to lose our elder, who has been a good resident. He owned a large chunk of land with many squatters, but he has been handling them well,” the chairperson of Bwotansimbi village, Dan Kiwanuka, said.

Kiwanuka disclosed that residents have a lot to learn from Nagenda, saying he was a man of his word.

He added that Nagenda was a jolly man, who would get time to share moments with residents, especially on history and current affairs. “We pray that people who are coming in his footsteps treat residents well,” he said.

The deceased’s elder brother, Mulinde Nagenda, 87, said John was trustworthy and a person who spoke out his mind. “Sometimes as a family, we would get scared whenever he spoke out his mind, more especially when it involved his boss, (President Yoweri Museveni),” he said.

Mulinde challenged the current journalists to emulate Nagenda by always writing and telling the truth and being balanced to support the country’s growth.

Source: New Vision

While delivering a government performance report over the past five years, Premier Li Keqiang reported that over the past five years, 100 million people had been lifted out of poverty.

Speaking at the opening event of the 14th National People’s Congress, which was held in Beijing at the Great Hall of the People, Keqiang said that a total of 832 impoverished counties were lifted from poverty, including more than 9.6 million poverty-stricken people who were relocated from inhospitable areas.

According to the report, this milestone was reached through implementing a policy that majorly targeted poverty alleviation, such as providing funding for poverty alleviation efforts on a priority basis, placing counties and villages facing difficulty in poverty alleviation under special supervision to ensure that they met poverty alleviation targets.

In addition, they also provided assistance to develop local industries and boost employment, ecological conservation, education, healthcare, social security, and other fields but most importantly ensuring that they had access to compulsory education, safe housing, and basic medical service.

During the fight against poverty, major poverty relief policies stayed consistent, despite having made major strides in the fight against poverty. This was done to ensure they guarded against being set back into the poverty trap. Hence, establishing monitoring and assistance mechanisms to prevent people who were lifted out of poverty from relapsing

"Policies remained largely unchanged during the transition period following the elimination of absolute poverty; all of the related responsibilities, policies, support, and oversight remained in place," said Keqiang.

Going forward, the government is still in a continued endeavour to stabilise agricultural output and advance rural revitalization by leveraging agriculture, specifically in the production of oilseed crops, and increasing grain production capacity by 50 million metric tonnes.

Among other major announcements, China set a 5% GDP target, compared to last year’s 3% GDP target. A 3% inflation rate was also set, which is higher than the 2% rate as of 2022. The 5% target is going to be very significant in guiding the local government and government agencies on the national level to better plan for and set goals that will help the entire country hit the 5% target.

According to the latest report from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), China’s economy is likely to rebound this year, especially after the lifting of the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, whereby it is estimated that every 1% growth in China contributes at least 0.3% of Asia’s growth.

The GDP is set over a period of five years and is set to be achieved through an increase in consumer domestic demand, the creation of better policies that favour the private sector, increasing the quality of products on the market, support of science and technology as well as private entities, but also encouraging more international investors into China and encouraging the private sector to venture into infrastructural ventures.

Technological advancement will play a key role in China’s development in the next five years, considering its 60% contribution to economic growth, at least according to the report.

The report indicated that China’s GDP increased to 121 trillion yuan, registering an annual growth rate of 5.2% over the past five years, and 70 trillion at an annual rate of 6.2 %

The Chinese government is not planning on using a flood of liquidity to push the prices, but the 3% inflation rate will be demand driven. According to the reports, this will be achieved through boosting the incomes of urban and rural people as well as stabilising spending on big tickets by citizens.

A total of 12.06 million urban jobs were added, with the year-end surveyed urban unemployment rate falling to 5.5%.

Source: New Vision

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What to expect from China’s two sessions

Thousands of delegates will set foot in Beijing to attend a two-week event commonly known as the 'two sessions'.

The two sessions is an event where both the National Congress (NPC), which is the legislative body, and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), which is the advisory body, hold their annual meeting to discuss matters of national importance.

This will be the first uninterrupted two session event ever since the COVID-19 restrictions were lifted last year (2022) in December.

The 2020 session was delayed for several months, while the 2021 and 2022 meetings ran for just a week instead of the usual two. This year’s two sessions are an opportunity for China to stir up new policy directions for the Chinese government for the next year.

While speaking at a press conference, Guo Weimin, the spokesperson for the first session of the 14th CPPCC, stated that the advisory body is expected to discuss and deliberate both on the works of the standing committee, and the proposals from political advisors.

In addition, during the first session, there will be elections for the chairman, vice chairman, secretary general, and standing members of the 14th National Committee of the CPPCC.

The 14th CPPCC National Committee's inaugural session political resolution as well as a revision to the CPPCC charter will be discussed and approved during the session.

During the two-week event, the NPC is also expected to review the draft report of the national economic and social development plan of China as well as elect members of various state institutions.

The 2021 two sessions were more concerned with law-based governance, anticorruption, rural-based revitalization, better housing for the Chinese people, and digital lifestyles.

This year’s two sessions, however, will focus more on governance, diplomacy, common prosperity, ecological conservation and green development, technology and innovation, and the economy, where discussions are expected to centre around more on job creation and increasing the purchasing power of the people of China.

The event will be an opportunity for the international community to look into China’s development and witness how China’s democracy works.

Over 2997 deputies from 35 electoral units across the country are expected to attend the event.

Among the elected deputies is Xu Fengcan, China's first female Z-20 pilot. She is one of the first female pilots to be trained by China’s Ground Force.

In general, the two sessions, especially the NPC session, will serve as an avenue to review government reports and discuss government plan for the future of China.

Source: New Vision