The First Economic development Forum summit in Africa starts in Kigali. Its motto is to enhance trade exports through the strengthening of the Small and Medium Entreprise in different areas.
The Summit has been prepared by the International Trade Center. It will be headed by different figures including Gonzalez Arancha who is the COE of the International Trade Centre (ITC)and Mr Lamin Manneh who is the legal representative of the UNDP in Rwanda.
President Paul Kagame today opened the World Export Development Forum (WEDF), which is taking place in Kigali, Rwanda. More than 800 delegates from 73 countries are attending the event. President Kagame told the gathering that the right cultural mind-set is critical to transform an economy.
‘The first obstacle to overcome is the belief that we cannot do it. If we overcome this, the rest is history,’ he said, emphasizing the importance of believing in oneself.‘To find the right trade niche requires not only hard work, but also resilience in the face of setbacks and disappointments. If the path were easy or obvious, it would have been discovered already,’ he said.
‘To overcome geographical and other disadvantages, we must benchmark ourselves against the best in the world, not just against similar economies,’ the President said. A vibrant private sector is the only way to encourage jobs and growth, especially for youth and women, said ITC’s Executive Director Arancha González.
‘By 2030, 500 million jobs need to be created to keep up with growth in the world’s working-age population. More and better jobs will mean the difference between a demographic dividend and a social time bomb,’ she said. ‘It is the continent with both the most poverty but also the greatest promise
Africa’s potential is practically infinite. Sub-Saharan Africa is the world’s second fastest-growing continent in economic terms, with GDP rising by an average of 6% per year,’ she said. Francis Gatare, Chief Executive Officer of Rwanda Development Board highlighted the importance of entrepreneurship and job creation, to unlock the potential of the private sector to fuel economic growth. ‘Rwanda shares the same vision as ITC, that a vibrant private sector is the only way trade-led growth and development can be achieved,’ he said.
Mr. Gatare also greeted delegates of the Women Vendors Exhibition and Forum, which this year is held as part of WEDF, pointing to the programmes Rwanda has in place to support women entrepreneurs. ‘Rwanda has a proven track record of economic, social and political inclusion of women and we are cognizant of women’s immense contribution to the transformation of this country, and championing greater regional market integration.’
Lamin Manneh, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative to Rwanda, said that the country’s rapid growth has led it to jump from 54th to 22nd in the World Bank’s Doing Business Report, making it an inspirational setting for the first WEDF in Africa. ‘It is no mean feat to achieve this jump in a year,’ he said.
The theme of WEDF 2014, ‘SMEs: Creating jobs through trade,’ reflects the importance that ITC and its partners attach to the role of a vibrant private sector in driving trade-led growth and development.
The urgent need to create employment opportunities, in particular for youth, will be at the core of the discussions between global thinkers and practitioners from the public and private sectors.
WEDF 2014 will explore how SMEs can become and remain competitive by addressing issues that impact their entrepreneurial capacity and operating environment. Developments in trade facilitation, regional integration, South-South cooperation and trade in services will be examined.
In the main sessions, high-level speakers and participants working in complex and dynamic environments will share best practices to address the challenges faced by developing countries and economies in transition, and propose solutions based on the principles of partnership, inclusiveness and sustainability.
The speech by President Kagame in his opening remarks at WEDF yesterday:
Kigali, 16 September 2014
It is my pleasure to welcome you all to Rwanda for this World Export Development Forum and I am very happy to join you. I would like to thank the International Trade Centre for your partnership with the Rwanda Development Board in organising this event.
This gathering is about one of the hardest challenges in the international development agenda: How to raise global development by bringing the benefits of trade to least developed countries, particularly landlocked, like Rwanda, and small island states, where most businesses are SMEs.
I prefer to leave the detailed discussion of trade facilitation mechanisms to you, the experts who will be handling this. Instead, I would like to open this meeting with a few words about the mindset required to transform an economy.
For those of us living in the ITC’s focus countries, the first obstacle to overcome, is the belief that we cannot do it.
If we overcome this, the rest is history. Our path to prosperity may be harder and slower than it was for others, but there is no country that is so isolated and disadvantaged that it cannot find some competitive edge in the global economy. So the first piece of the necessary mindset is to believe in ourselves.
However, to find the right trade niche requires not only hard work, but also resilience in the face of setbacks and disappointments. If the path were easy or obvious, it would have been discovered already. Therefore, the second mindset trait is, to never give up.
Export development is really about embracing competition. How do we ensure that we are prepared to put ourselves out there globally and swim with the best? How do we equip local entrepreneurs and businesses to take advantage of the many opportunities to get better and stronger?
To overcome geographical and other disadvantages, we must benchmark ourselves against the best in the world, not just against similar economies. For example, if you are winning all your tennis matches, you are probably not improving your game very much. You may think you are winning, even though, in a larger sense, you are really losing. The same principle applies as we seek to develop the productive capacities of our citizens, and our economies as a whole.
So the third mindset element is, to see competition as an opportunity rather than a problem. Our role as governments and facilitators is to ask what can be done to help our business people and workers learn the lessons of competition faster, so that the rewards can be shared without delay.
The foundation of all our efforts is good governance, which for us means a relentless focus on delivering the results that citizens want.
As recorded in many opinion surveys, the top priority for people, in almost every country, is jobs. Building a competitive, modern economy requires smart investments in human capital, and productive knowledge. After all, real wealth is in the head, not in the ground.
This ranges from providing high-quality skills training and broadband connectivity, to nurturing a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship. We are much stronger together, so in eastern Africa, we are working to build regional trade by integrating our markets.
We have removed non-tariff trade barriers, as well as restrictions to travel and work. Through the Northern Corridor Integration Projects, we are also taking a regional approach to critical infrastructure and fast-tracking these steps we need to take.
But, in order for such efforts to transform societies, we need to start with a conversation about the attitudes required to find solutions and get things done. There is enough opportunity in this world for all of us generally, and there is enough opportunity in East Africa and the rest of the continent.
I welcome you again to Rwanda, and wish you a happy stay and fruitful deliberations. Thank you.
Source: rpfinkotanyi.org
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