A recent trade mission bringing together business leaders from India and the United Kingdom to Uganda offered something rare: a moment of genuine historical reflection. The delegates — investors travelling together under the UK–Africa Business Summit platform — visited the Liao Shen Industrial Park in Nakaseke District, Kapeeka, and found themselves standing inside an African-owned industrial complex, engaging not as administrators or intermediaries, but as potential partners.
Colonial Extraction and the 1946 Development Plan
In December 1946, the British Protectorate administration published its Development Plan for Uganda. The document codified an economic model built around agricultural commodity extraction — primarily cotton and coffee — channelled toward British markets through tightly controlled infrastructure networks: railways, processing facilities, and export routes that served imperial trade rather than domestic development.
Strategic ownership of Uganda's productive assets rested almost entirely with the colonial administration and foreign commercial interests. The Uganda Company, a British colonial trading enterprise, shaped this extractive structure. African participation in industry at the management or ownership level remained negligible. Uganda existed, in economic terms, as a supplier of raw materials, not a producer of finished goods.
Development was defined by what the colonial state needed from Uganda, not what Uganda needed for itself.
Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Dependence on Foreign Capital
Three decades ago, Uganda stood in a phase of recovery rather than colonial administration, but still defined by external dependency. After years of catastrophic instability under Idi Amin in the 1970s and the turbulent early 1980s, the National Resistance Movement government pursued economic reconstruction through liberalisation, structural adjustment, and foreign investment incentives.
Industrial capacity remained severely depleted. Manufacturing assets had either collapsed or been looted during the years of political violence. Foreign capital was not merely welcome — it was essential. Uganda at this stage remained largely dependent on external investors and international financial institutions to restart production and establish any semblance of sustainable economic activity.
The Birth of a New Industrial Model at Kapeeka
Ten years ago, a new chapter began in Nakaseke District. The Liao Shen Industrial Park at Kapeeka was formally established in 2015, with the first two pioneer industries — Goodwill and Ho & Mu — commencing operations in 2017. The park was conceived within Uganda's broader strategy to move the national economy away from raw commodity dependence toward structured industrial manufacturing.
Chinese manufacturing firms entered the park under a carefully structured partnership framework, supported by Ugandan government policy on industrial zoning, energy access, and infrastructure development. The approach was deliberate: attract manufacturing expertise and capital, while retaining strategic ownership and directing the benefits of employment and production toward Ugandan communities.
African Ownership, Thirty-Four Industries, and Six Thousand Jobs
Today, the Liao Shen Industrial Park at Kapeeka hosts 34 distinct industries, spanning building materials, consumer goods, manufacturing equipment, and more. The park directly addresses the import-export imbalance that has historically defined Uganda's trade position.
Strategic leadership and ownership sit with Ugandan direction under General Salim Saleh. Chinese industrial partners — principally through the management of Mr. Zhang Hao, Managing Director of Liao Shen — supply manufacturing expertise, machinery, and investment capital. Uganda holds the strategic asset; partners contribute technical capacity and capital deployment.
From Maj. Gen. Buckley to Gen. Salim Saleh: The Full Circle of Economic Authority
Colonial Design
Uganda's land, labour, and agricultural output served British commercial and imperial interests. Decisions were made by foreign authorities. Ownership was colonial. Direction was external. Benefit was largely exported.
African Sovereignty
Ugandans operate industrial machinery. Chinese investment partners contribute technology under African strategic direction. English and Indian investors arrive to learn — not to extract. The visitors who once held authority now come as guests.
This is not merely symbolic. The park's 34 industries, its 6,000 direct employees, and its contribution to Uganda's Vision 2040 and the UN Sustainable Development Goals represent measurable, structural change. Uganda is no longer only a commodity supplier adjusting to external prices. It is developing the productive capacity of a nation that manufactures, employs, and exports on its own terms.
The Uganda Company once organised the flow of Uganda's cotton outward, for British benefit. Today, the Liao Shen Industrial Park organises the flow of manufactured goods inward, for Ugandan employment and regional market supply.
The Challenges That Remain
The journey is incomplete. Acknowledged challenges include:
- Access to affordable financing remains a serious constraint on the park's further development
- Critical infrastructure — water, sewerage, and internal road networks — is still under construction
- Sustaining political will and regulatory consistency across the Uganda Investment Authority, Uganda Revenue Authority, Uganda Bureau of Standards, and Ministry of Finance
- Maintaining inter-agency collaboration as the park continues to scale
These are acknowledged challenges, not disqualifying ones. The ten-year trajectory — from two factories in an empty field to 34 industries producing goods for regional markets — demonstrates that the structural conditions for Uganda's industrial transformation exist and are being utilised.
