President Kagame shared Rwanda’s story of nation building as he delivered a keynote address at the seventh World Government Summit in the United Arab Emirates city of Dubai. The annual forum is dedicated to ‘shaping the future of governments’ worldwide with a focus on how they can harness innovation and technology to solve universal challenges facing humanity.
This year’s gathering highlighted Rwanda as a guest country, showcasing the country’s progress in the tourism and agriculture sector.
“In the last twenty-five years in Rwanda, we have worked to build a new nation, based on the values of unity and opportunity for all our citizens. We have made significant progress over the years, but there is much more to do. However, none of this would have been possible without the right foundation. There are several things we had to get right from the beginning. First, was the understanding that leaders and institutions are in place to respond to the expectations of citizens. This was complemented by a focus on civic participation and trust, ensuring that everyone is included in shaping the country’s future. Bringing all Rwandans together in a common enterprise also meant guaranteeing the rights of those who were previously marginalised, particularly women. The commitment to good politics has generated immense goodwill, and energy, which helped Rwandans to resolve the complex issues related to our country’s history” President Kagame said.
As a result of this social contract, President Kagame added, the government has been able to simultaneously invest heavily in our human capital, and also in ambitious infrastructure and technology for our future prosperity.
The government had also to start transforming the basis of its economy from subsistence to knowledge, in order to unleash creativity, entrepreneurship, and innovation through creating a conducive enabling environment, and a level playing field for private enterprise.
As part of the country’s priorities, President Kagame said the the country was “working to reverse a legacy of extreme corruption and division, that nearly completely destroyed our country” and put efforts in regional and continental integration as means to participate in bigger markets for the country’s economic future.
During the session on best practices from Rwanda, Rwandan delegation discussed the work done in promoting agriculture and tourism to grow the country’s economy and maximise the benefits for Rwandan people.
The annual global gathering hosts over 4000 participants and invites Heads of State and Government as well as international organisations’ representatives and experts from over 100 countries. Other two guest countries at this year’s Summit were Estonia and Costa Rica.
On the sidelines of the summit, President Kagame also met with His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and the Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE’s Armed Forces. (End)