KAMPALA - Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has met a group of officials from the Export-Import (Exim) Bank of China who have expressed interest in investing in the East African country's banking and infrastructure sectors.

Museveni, according to a State House statement issued here on Friday, told the delegation led by Zhu Hongjie, vice president of the Exim Bank, that Uganda regards investors as true development partners.

He told the visiting delegation which he met in the eastern Ugandan district of Iganga on Thursday that Uganda's economy has been growing at a rate of 8 percent per annum despite the country having a power crisis.

He assured the delegation that once the power shortage problem is addressed, the economy will grow even faster and the investment climate will improve tremendously.

The delegation told Museveni that it is interested in investing in the banking sector as well as in the development of infrastructure such as railways, roads and power generation.

The bank is financing the construction of a $350 million expressway linking the country's international airport to the capital Kampala.

This is the second Chinese delegation meeting Museveni barely two weeks after the first one led by Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie.

China is becoming one of Uganda's top development partners especially in the infrastructure, agriculture and oil sectors.

Statistics released on Nov 23 ranked China as the second biggest foreign investment contributor in Uganda for the third quarter of this year.

According to a report released by Uganda Investment Authority, a state-owned investment agency, during the period of July- September 2011, China's planned investments in Uganda hit $6.5 million.

In 2009, the Asian country emerged as the second biggest foreign direct investment contributor in the country.