Stop importing what you can make, Museveni told the Ugandans.

President Yoweri Museveni has instructed the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives and the Ministry of Agriculture to find land to promote the cultivation of rubber, which is an important raw material for the production of medical supplies.

He gave a speech when entrusting East Africa Medical Vitals, a Ugandan company that produces high-quality latex and powder-free medical gloves, which are important medical consumables in health facilities.

"The Minister of Industry should keep in touch with agriculture on the issue of rubber planting. Because this is a connection-rubber is agriculture and is connected to the petroleum industry, and the factory is connected to the health department," he said.

President Museveni said that rubber plantation will save a lot of money for importing medical supplies and raw materials. He congratulated East Africa Medical Vitals for the initiative.

"This is an effort to substitute imports. Stop buying things you can make yourself from others," he added.

Earlier, President Museveni and dignitaries visited the factory and witnessed the production and packaging of medical gloves. He promised to solve the problem of industrial power outages and improve the road network in the industrial park.

The state-of-the-art manufacturing plant located in the Namanve Industrial Park can produce more than 10,000 gloves per hour and approximately 95 million gloves per year, ready to supply East Africa and the COMESA market.

According to Ben Kavuya, executive director of East Africa Medical Vitals, they imported latex from Malaysia-the raw material used to make surgical gloves and condoms-and added that in the future, the country needs to introduce rubber cultivation in this industry, he said. There will be a ready market and employment opportunities for many Ugandans.

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