Uganda has signed a pact with a business association from the United Arab Emirates to build a new international airport, President Yoweri Museveni’s office announced on Friday.

The deal for the East African nation’s third such airport expands the UAE’s economic footprint beyond its interests in the renewable energy and oil and gas industries.

The cost of the airport was not revealed.

The UAE’s Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry will build the airport just outside the Kidepo National Park in the northeast near Uganda’s border with Kenya, Museveni’s office said in a statement, without giving the cost.

Construction will start in August, said Abdallah Sultan Al Owais, chairman of the Sharjah business body.

The airport will boost tourism by drawing visitors to the 1,442-square-kilometre Kidepo park known for lions, giraffes, buffaloes and other big game.

Abdallah Sultan informed president Museveni that upon completion, the airport would have a 3,500 metre runway to accommodate aircraft like Boeing 777.

The agreement was “a sign of the deepening relations with our Gulf partners and another opportunity to co-operate in investment and trade”, Museveni, who witnessed the signing, said in a post on X.

The decision was announced on Wednesday during a meeting with a delegation from the Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry led by the chamber’s Board of Directors Chairman Abdallah Sultan al Owais at State House in Entebbe.

Abdallah Sultan and his delegation briefed Museveni on the progress of the airport project that is already under construction Karamoja subregion. Museveni assured the Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry that Uganda would exempt from tax. He further promised to mobilise the Uganda Hotel Owners Association to build hotels in the area that will accommodate passengers who will be using the Airport.

Thursday’s meeting was attended by Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka, Minister of State for Works and Transport Fred Byamukama and the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Okello Oryem.

• A Tell / Reuters report