President Kagame at a panel at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in China
The president of Rwanda Paul Kagame participated at a panel of the World Economic Forum and said that it is the responsibility to create a level playing field that allows people to unleash their maximum potential.
“Competitiveness is built for the purpose of having an impact on people’s lives. It builds on how leadership and the people interact,” said President Kagame.
On Rwanda’s approach to regional competitiveness, President Kagame explained that joining the East African Community allowed for increased competition:
“It makes it easier to build infrastructure that serves the entire region and resolves common challenges.”
President Kagame addressed the topic of competitiveness alongside the Chairman of All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce (ACFIC), Huang Mengfu, State Secretary for Economic Affairs of Switzerland, Marie-Gabrielle Ineichen-Fleisch, Minister of International Trade and Industry of Malaysia, Mustapa Mohamed and Prime Minister of Denmark Helle Thorning-Schmidt.
The session was concluded with a question to all participants on the prospects of improvement in competitiveness ranking for each of their nations.
When asked about the prospects for Africa, President Kagame reminded the audience that many African nations have been working on their competitiveness.
“Africa has a chance, if Rwanda did it, many countries can do it better. Rwanda moved up 7 places. If we work harder, we can keep moving up,” President Kagame concluded.
Held under the theme ‘Creating Future Economy’ the World Economic Forum was opened by China’s Prime Minister Wen Jiabao.
He explained China’s accomplishments over the past decades. “After years of hard work we have laid a sustainable base for growth, improved infrastructure and built sound institutional framework.
We have cut poverty by half ahead of 2015, 100′s of millions of Chinese families have experienced tremendous changes in last few years and Chinese people have changed their life through hard work and perseverance,” he said