Tianjin, 11 September 2012
President Kagame today participated at a panel of the World Economic Forum where he shared with the participants his vision for competitiveness:
“Competitiveness is built for the purpose of having an impact on people’s lives. It builds on how leadership and the people interact. it is the responsibility of leaders to create a level playing field that allows people to unleash their maximum potential.”
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.”
View pictures of the story: http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulkagame/sets/72157631510169461/
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 concluded by reminding 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’ China’s Prime Minister, Wen Jiabao opened The World Economic Forum and 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 family have experienced tremendous changes in last few years and Chinese people have changed their life through hard work and perseverance.” The Premier added.