Investment Conference - Day 2

Another good and informative day at the Investment Conference. Although this day was set out for Breakout Sessions, the day started an hour earlier to allow for the opening speech by Dr Kaberuka, the President of the African Development Bank. He had been delayed the day before and was consequently not able to make his speech. This session and the Finance session was also attended by the First Lady.

I attended the Finance session in the morning at the InterContinental Hotel and the Tourism Session in the afternoon at the Hotel Novotel. Both sessions were very informative and constructive with my focus obviously being on the Tourism session.

The latter session was attended by a wide spectrum of delegates from Rwanda and abroad. It also highlighted how much ORTPN (Rwanda Tourism) took into consideration the opinions and suggestions from the private sector and considered the consultations between public and private sectors very important. Madame Rosette Rugamba took us through the tourism strategy and policy after which the floor was opened to questions, suggestions and discussions with the panellists.

It was heartening to see the growing interest by large hotel groups and/or investors willing and ready to invest in Rwanda especially considering the mass of opportunities here. The most important issue that was agreed as the crux of the industry's way forward was capacity building. In this the Government had taken the lead and was already offering burseries to Rwandan students to study at a hotel school in South Africa. At present there are 29 students busy with their studies on this scheme and as I understand it, 11 have already returned and are ready to help with training etc in Rwanda. Hotels Chez Lando and Gorillas also made available their establishments for new entrants to the industry where trainee staff could undergo internships.

The conference was closed at a dinner hosted at the InterContinental Hotel by RIEPA and MTN (Mobile service provider) and included traditional singing and dancing. I missed out again on getting some good video footage of the traditional displays - didn't take my camera with!