Today, President Kagame joined the Milken Asia Summit for a fireside chat moderated by Richard Ditizio, Milken Institute CEO, to discuss Rwanda’s journey of socio-economic transformation.
They discussed Rwanda’s initiatives to build a stronger country, from growing an innovative and resilient domestic economy to internationalizing its markets and fostering strategic relationships with key global partners. Below is their discussion.
“Rwanda has had a tragic history but we have left that behind us. For us to move forward successfully we had to make choices, policy choices if you will. It starts with mobilizing everybody in the country to understand why some of those choices are the ones we have to adopt. Things can’t just be addressed by politics. Politics is a very good thing in as far as politics allows the right environment for other things to happen. That is how we came to embrace doing business and attracting investments. We had to figure out how best can we attract investments to our country and allow our own citizens to thrive. Overall there has to be clear governance that allows stability. Governance is an issue of rights and accountability. We fight corruption. We have created an environment where people who get involved in that will understand it is not a good thing to be involved in, especially when you are caught. It’s important; it’s justice, it’s an issue of rights, it’s beneficial to everyone. We take this seriously.” President Kagame said in his remarks at the Milken Asia Summit.
“Rwanda has gone through many difficulties. And at a personal level, by the way, my family, we became refugees when I was four years old and stayed in a refugee camp for slightly over two decades. Then later on of course the history lessons of our own tragic 1994 Genocide because of the division that was there. The lessons from that, and which shaped me or informed me and many others, it’s not just me there are many others; in a situation like that, every individual in a way you have to make personal even, or informed decisions. Either you give up and break and that’s the end of you, or you make the choice of saying, I am going to stand up to this, I am going to give it a fight that I have in me, to survive and maybe to make progress. At a personnel level that happened. I, at some point, and I know it’s not just me it’s many in our country, we’re faced with individual choices; do you give up and die or do you die fighting? And those of us who made a choice of the latter, that is how these choices [came to be]. Today I am President, I never thought, I never even lived or thought to be President, when it came I embraced it but it’s not what I was fighting for, in our struggle, I was fighting for my rights to my country, I was asking myself questions and that’s what many other Rwandans, girls and boys, men and women, were asking themselves. Those who stood up and fought for that. Later on, when you are in a place like mine and you have a responsibility, again it helps to keep reflecting; would you be the same person to make the same mistakes that people made that made you a refugee or led to loss of lives of so many, and so on and so forth, or you really want to do your best as humanely possible to feel satisfied that you are doing the right thing for yourself but also putting yourself in the shoes of many others. Are they able to stand up to these challenges the way it should happen, maybe the challenges should be minimized as much as possible? It’s what goes on in the minds, at least it does in my mind whenever I am going about my responsibilities. I am a good student of history.” President Kagame on Rwanda’s history and how it shaped him and his generation”, President Kagame declared.
“Our history really gives two lessons; one is what human beings can do that is terrible, including self-destruction. But there is another side when we recover from all this, that human beings actually have in them, the better side that can also move them to a good future that they actually deserve. For us in Rwanda we are between these two things. We hope the young people today, whom we invest in as a country, can learn a lasting lesson from all this.” President Kagame on his greatest hope in Rwanda’s young people”, he added.
President Kagame is in Singapore for the 11th annual Asia Summit and meet Singapore’s leadership. Themed “Impactful Ideas: Purposeful Action,” the Summit is an opportunity for leaders in government and in business, finance, health, technology, and philanthropy to explore untapped opportunities to improve health and well-being, engender sustainable practices, enhance competitiveness, and activate more impactful investments for people and the planet.
The 2024 Asia Summit is a unique platform where leading entrepreneurs can connect with people whose expertise, creativity, and passion are transforming health, finance, business, technology, philanthropy, and society.
During his visit, President Kagame will be hosted for a luncheon by Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong followed by meetings with President Tharman Shanmugaratnam of Singapore and Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Lawrence Wong. (End)