Rwanda: PM Ngirente, EU Delegation Discuss Trade Partnership
Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente held a meeting with the European Union (EU) delegation, at his office on June 27 and discussed various areas of partnership to boost trade and investments.
The EU delegation included Koen Doens, Director General of International Partnerships, Cecile Billaux, Head of Unit for the private sector, trade, investment, climate and employment, Belen Calvo Uyarra, Ambassador of EU to Rwanda, Ben Nupnau, Deputy Head of Delegation and Michela Tomasella, Head of Cooperation, EU Delegation.
Speaking to the media, Doens pointed out that the meeting with Prime Minister was the opportunity to take stock to make a joint assessment of what happened over the past two days in the EU- business forum held in Rwanda for the first time.
“The meeting was mainly to see the work forward especially to agree on the next steps those next steps will be real they will be concrete and I hope that very soon in a couple of months the occasion of the high-level visit we will already be able to show progress on what we did here over those two days,” he explained
He further pointed out that, Rwanda is a very interesting place to invest for the EU investors.
” Rwanda has a strong health agenda and aims to attract EU investors interested in value addition. This is largely due to the government’s clear agenda, knowledge of its strengths, and strong implementation capacity. The one-stop center further facilitates doing business in Rwanda, making it a favorable investment destination for EU investors, he added.
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Doens emphasized the plans to mobilize public funding with the aim is to actively advance Rwanda’s agenda and providing support for several key ambitions. Distinguished areas include pharmaceutical production, agriculture, and the mining sector among others.
Manasseh Nshuti, the Minister of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, emphasized that the discussions were fruitful, and expressed mutual interests for future collaboration between both parties.
Nshuti noted that Rwanda has enormous potential for exporting various commodities to the EU, including crops and minerals. During the discussion, both sides acknowledged the need to shift from exporting raw materials for minerals to exporting finished products.
He further said that the EU actually had the same plans to carry out the entire process in Africa, especially in Rwanda. He further added that there is an expected new partnership in the future, particularly in areas such as pharmaceuticals and others.
Meanwhile, during the opening of the forum themed ‘Rwanda – Your Gateway to Africa,’ which brought together over 600 players, emphasized the need for Rwanda to establish preferential trade agreements with the EU in order to stimulate economic growth.
