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cutting dated V4 m 1978 to open prestige HQ in New York _ By IAN BALL in New York PRESIDENT AMIN plans to fly to New York in May to lend his personal touch to the opening cere- monies for the Ugandan government's Imposing j building opposite the ' United Nations',headquar- ters in Manhattan. • Sheathed in fashionable rown-tinted glass, the building" a monument both to Anmv"s vanity arrl last year's record world colTee prices—will out- shihe the U N delegation build- ings of the superpowers as well as the New York missions of, such financially-secure nations as West Germany and Japan. The upper of two luxury pent- houses, the residence designed by an American architect to 'Field-Marshal Aroin's specifica- tions, will look down on the headquarters of the United States" delegation to the U N. This building, Uganda House's neighbour, now looks positively shabby in comparison with Amin's new diplomatic p<alace. Special session When I inspected the Uganda headquarters yesterd'ay, work- men said they were •speeding up #ie job so tne building would be ready for an opening cere- mony in two months' time. A senior member of the Ugandan delegation toW me PresPdent Amin planned to travel to New York to declare I Uganda House open "and also to attend the "May special ses-, sion of the General Assembly." Two specfal assembly sessions are to be held this sprintg, one in April and May on Namibia, the other in May and June, on disarmament. . • It Is not known whether the Ugandan dictator plans to attend one or both. . , Threadbare economy i Amirt \ni gone ahead with Ms grandiose plan ire the face of mild criticism by Western diplomats, as well as by a few Third World delegates, tlrat the money might have been spent more effectively at home. The building and land is said to be worth nt least £5 million;. Uganda's per capita annual in- come is among the lowest in the" world. Because of its threadtjare national economy, it is assessed at the lowest possible level in the dues member countries pay to the United Nations—O'Ol per cent, of the total budget. There is some mystery as to how the Ugandan Government will use tho building's eight floors. Kampala has only a handful of permanent officials in New York..