Intro
China's investments in Africa have increased in the past decade, with significant impact especially on the continent's Sub-Saharan region.
Our correspondent Michael Baleke reports about China's recent major projects in infrastructure and energy in Uganda.
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Uganda's capital Kampala is a bustling city home to thousands of businesses owned by both locals and foreigners.
Some of them are Chinese nationals.
North and East of Uganda's Capital - Chinese companies are lead contractors on two major hydropower dams - worth about three billion dollars - along Africa' s longest river.
Mr. Zhao Yali – the former Chinese envoy to Uganda says this is just a small fraction of China and its growing influence here.
"The reality is that there is lack and shortage of electricity, without electricity you can do nothing – when you talk about industrialization, urbanization – without electricity its out of the question."
And to the west of Kampala, near the border with DR Congo, China is helping Uganda exploit its 6.5 billion barrels of estimated oil deposits.
Ambassador Philip Idro – a former Ugandan envoy to china says the country is presenting African economies with an alternative in global trade.
"There can be no economic development without energy… which means electricity or oil. So for this reason and because China has also experienced the importance of this, and they are now good at it in there own country… and they are also exporting it to other countries in the world… they also want to make it an essential part of their program in Africa."
But as China pumps billions worth of investments into Uganda's economy, the Chinese do not go without criticism.
The World Bank has previously suspended a road construction project following child rights abuses, and a recent Parliament probe ordered some Chinese firms to refund road project money over allegations fraud.
However Uganda aims at attaining a middle-income status by the year 2020 and prioritizes its Chinese ties as part of this long-term plan.