A speech delivered by His Excellency Paul Kagame, President of the Republic of Rwanda, At the Africa America Institute (AAI)
New York, 14th September 2005
Co-Chairmen of this Event; Your Majesty King Mswati III; Your Excellencies Heads of State; Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs; Excellencies; Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen
It gives me great pleasure to be here.
Thank you so much, Bobby Sager and Ambassador Andrew Young, for your warm and generous words of introduction, and thank you all for finding time to be with us this evening.
Let me begin my remarks this evening by expressing my heartfelt sympathies to you and the entire American nation for the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina.
As you struggle to recover from this catastrophe, your friends in Rwanda are with you.
And I am confident that you will emerge from this catastrophe stronger as a nation and as a people.
Let me say, in the name of the Rwandan people how honoured we are to receive this African National Achievement Award from the Africa America Institute, an Institution whose mission is to promote enlightened engagement between Africa and the United States of America through education, training, and dialogue.
We, in Rwanda, and indeed on the entire Continent, take pride in your tireless promotion of greater understanding of Africa among a wide spectrum of Americans, and in your endeavour to bring American and African policy makers closer.
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen;
Rwandans have indeed made a successful transition from devastation, conflict and genocide, to peace and stability.
They are working hard to create an environment conducive to shared economic growth and prosperity.
Of course, the wounds of genocide will take generations to heal.
The socio-economic disruptions are major challenges that Rwandans struggle with everyday.
Rwanda has to be innovative and attempt to leapfrog the many decades of persistent, consistent and incremental development efforts that have allowed other countries, including your own, to and prosper.
In this endeavour, the role of technology is paramount.
Therefore, although I could have shared with you a number of issues this evening, I have been requested, appropriately in my view, to speak on "Rwanda's Determined Path toward Technology and the Future".
This, in many ways, is a topic that reflects the spirit of the Rwandan people, and the mood in the country 11 years after the events of 1994.
The Rwandan people are determined to rise from the genocide and collectively embark on the difficult path to become a healthy and just society, capable of caring for all its citizens and competing in the world economy.
This may sound overambitious to some of you, given our recent history, as well as our limited natural resource endowments.
But I would like you to recall that some countries, many of them on the Asian continent, which were once in the same league as Rwanda in terms of development a mere four decades ago, dependent on subsistence agriculture, with a small domestic market and lacking in natural resources, are today considered economic tigers of the world.
This is partly because of the educational policies they consistently implemented, which expanded technology in education and industry.
We too have a vision; a vision to be a modern and prosperous nation, strong and united, worthy and proud of its fundamental principles.
And we know that only a strong foundation in science and technology will allow us to realise this vision of the future of Rwanda.
This will by necessity entail the investment in our people; the most important resource we have.
As you know, technology is "human innovation in action".
That is why we intend to continue to invest in our people and participate in the opening up of the frontiers of science, technology and research as we broaden our trade links with our neighbouring countries and beyond.
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen;
The role and relevance of science and technology in our country now and in the future cannot be overemphasised.
The American people know best that there is a strong relationship between scientific and technological innovation and economic growth.
We too are aware that science and technology can make an invaluable contribution to development by, for example, reducing disease burdens and food insecurity, facilitating communication, enabling the monitoring of global and national environments to warning of natural disasters, developing new ways of using water, energy, and other natural resources, and others.
That is why we have decided to integrate science, technology, scientific research and innovation in a framework that shall include capacity building, technical transfer initiatives, and the promotion of innovation, in the context of the issues facing Rwanda.
Within this generation, we would like to see Rwanda become a modern nation, able to generate and disseminate technological knowledge and innovation, as factors of creativity, productivity, job creation, and well being of the Rwandan people.
We would like to see our country become a centre of excellence at a regional level in the area of technologies, particularly with Information and Communication Technologies.
Our education system has responded to this agenda.
We have taken measures to increase and improve the quality of scientific and technical studies, to integrate technological literacy in all schools, and to integrate instructional technology at higher levels of education.
We have encouraged the growth of Institutes of Science and Technology.
As a sign of a new, hopeful future, we have turned a former military college in the middle of the Capital, Kigali, into the Kigali Institute of Science, Technology, and Management.
The Institute is fast becoming a regional centre of excellence in technological education and relevant applied scientific research.
As part of the vision I have mentioned above,
· We are developing a national optical fibre backbone between Rwanda's major cities;
· We are launching the Kigali optical ring and connection of 27 Government Offices to it through the e-Government programme;
· We will introduce computers in all Rwandan schools by 2007, and already, most of the secondary schools and a substantial number of primary schools have already acquired them;
· We have trained a large number of teachers and installed the highest tele-density satellite - VSAT terminals in Africa.
In our view, science and technology will:
· Stimulate a steady growth in GDP; · Advance the quality of life for all the citizens of the country; · Improve skills and knowledge among the population; and · Integrate technical education with commerce, industry and the private sector in general.
Of course, technical education and training must be market-oriented.
We will not be able to achieve our objective to be a technology hub if our markets and those of the region do not respond.
Eventually the private sector must play an important role in technology education and in scientific research.
That is why we have taken measures to create a conducive environment that will facilitate the absorption of technology skills and products.
These measures include facilitating start-ups, technology incubators, and technology parks.
In addition to our national efforts, we are implementing programmes promoted by the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), as well as other sub-regional bodies.
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COMESA, of which we are a member, has a population of about 380 million.
It is a major regional market potential, especially in the area of technology utilization, which is pivotal to the economic success of Rwanda and the entire region.
The promotion of regional trade and integration through the use of ICTs, and the development of the COMESA high-capacity optical fibre network to the 21 capital cities of COMESA, and the acceleration of the East African Submarine Cable Project and its backhaul connection are just some of the emerging projects with great potential.
But in a country like Rwanda where the rate of illiteracy is still high and where technology has been ignored because it was considered out of reach, the task requires concerted effort and a lot of investment.
We recognise the critical importance of the Africa America Institute's mission and work devoted to increasing Africa's wealth of human capital.
You have done it through technology transfer, particularly in the areas of infrastructure development, energy, and Information and Information Technologies, and through the exchange of expertise, consultancies, and high-level training and student exchange programmes. You have also done it through business and entrepreneurship development.
We welcome your support and that of our other development partners.
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen;
This evening, I have painted for you a picture of what we, in Rwanda are committed to.
The Africa America Institute has been a partner with Africans on key initiatives in the past.
Together we have broken frontiers in our fight against ignorance and stereotyping of African people.
The digital divide is a new frontier facing us.
Countries like mine are determined to make our contribution.
We welcome your partnership.
Thank you for your attention.
