New York, 26 September 2013
President Kagame has said that Rwanda needs access to global capital flow to fuel her development aspirations. Speaking at the Milken Institute’s Access to Global Capital Initiative roundtable held under the theme: ‘Linking international firms and global investors with transparent effective governments in emerging markets’ with other global leaders in New York today, President Kagame said:
“As we embark on implementing our five-year economic development strategy, we need to accelerate the flow of capital. That is why the Government of Rwanda has partnered with the Milken Institute in order to access global capital.”
President Kagame said many African countries have witnessed real progress in socio-economic development, and that GDP growth averages 5 per cent, while FDIs have grown eight-fold since the year 2000
However, he said that it must be acknowledge that Africa is far below its potential and aspirations, and that Africans aspire not merely to escape the poverty trap but to be prosperous: he said.
“To achieve this, three main challenges need to be done to attract capital; strengthening political and economic governance, improving infrastructure and bridging skills gaps. These challenges can only be overcome through embarking on strategic partnerships, like the one Rwanda has with Tony Blair’s African Governance Initiative which seeks to institutionalise structures and building capacity.”
During the discussions where world leaders discussed how to boost capital flows and fuel growth in developing world, the Milken Institute’s Access to Global Capital Initiative and Tony Blair’s African Governance Initiative announced that they would work together to help identify and implement best practices that accelerate the flow of capital in emerging and developing countries, starting in Rwanda. The Access to Global Capital Initiative was launched last year, developed in partnership with Liquidnet.
This joint effort will focus on partnering with governments in those markets that will benefit from the implementation of systems and processes to enhance governance, increase transparency, create more seamless flows of capital and commerce, foster skills transfer and domestic industry and fuel economic growth.
Mindy Silverstein, Managing Director of the Milken Institute said:
“This partnership with Tony Blair and his team at the African Governance Initiative has tremendous potential to foster growth by connecting the public and private sectors. AGI is on the ground, promoting good governance and supporting its implementation; the Institute brings economic expertise and, through our network, capital to the table to incentivize change.”
Seth Merrin, Chairman of the Access to Global Capital Initiative and CEO of Liquidnet said:
“Thanks to its leadership, Rwanda is the ideal pilot country for these efforts, and we are honored to be working with President Kagame and other key Rwandan officials on strategies to expand and integrate their capital markets. In just our first few months working actively with the country we are seeing encouraging results – new investors entering the market and supporting the growth of key industries that will grow the economy, create jobs and ultimately accelerate the flow of capital in order to fuel long term growth.”
The Access to Global Capital Initiative is helping accelerate growth in emerging and developing markets by linking multinational firms and global investors with governments committed to policies that enable economic growth.
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