Another area that requires urgent attention is
the setting up of 10 vocational education centres
and 4 business incubation centres in Rwanda
by India. India approved a line of credit of $81
million but as per the latest data from India’s
Exim Bank, no disbursal has taken place so far
under this particular line of credit.
However, a vocational training centre
for youth employment had already been
commissioned in Kigali in January 2015 under
assistance from India as a part of the decisions
announced during the First India-Africa Forum
Summit.
Ambassador Soni says: “These training
institutes would prove to be an asset in Africa’s
ongoing efforts to create a new generation of
skilled and technology-empowered workers.
The Make in India and Digital India missions,
launched by the Modi government, will
also have ripple effects in its outreach and
diplomacy in Africa.”
Despite the country’s small size and
extremely low bilateral trade, India was
perhaps attracted to Rwanda because of the
way President Paul Kagame has transformed
the country in the last two decades.
The joint statement issued during President
Kagame’s visit to India stated that India
appreciated Rwanda’s strides towards reforming
the country which has led to sustained economic
growth and emergence of Rwanda as a regional
hub in East Africa.
In the declaration of strategic partnership,
India and Rwanda both agreed to increase
the number of high profi le visits and Rwanda
recorded its expectation of a high profi le visit
from India to the country. Within a month of
this declaration, India sent then Vice President
Hamid Ansari on a fi ve-day visit to Rwanda and
Uganda in February 2017. India and Rwanda
signed three important agreements in the fi eld
of innovation, aviation, and visa requirements
during Mr. Ansari’s visit.
The two countries also agreed to set up an
entrepreneurship development centre in Kigali
to promote innovation. In the aviation sector, it
was agreed that RwandAir will start services to
India and both countries will mutually exempt
visa requirements.
India and Rwanda both share each other’s
concerns for climate change and global warming
and completely back the Paris Climate Agreement.
Prime Minister Modi and President Kagame and delegates talk business during the Gurajat Global Summit
12 • RWANDA • 2018