Donatille Mukabalisa Parliamentary Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies
Rwanda’s Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Donatille Mukabalisa has convinced Israel Investors to tap into the country’s opportunities.
“My country Rwanda is ready. Its geo-strategic position in East and Central Africa is an asset and presents immense business opportunities for Israel investors,” she said.
“I assure you that Rwanda is a credible, concerned with the well-being and development of its people and of Africa as a whole,” she told the Israelis.
Mukabalisa was this morning addressing Knesset – the unicameral legislature of Israel on the invitation of her counterpart, Yuli-Yoel Edelstein.
This week, the Knesset hosted five African heads of parliament from Rwanda, Ghana, Seychelles, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.
The invitation to Israel legislature is quite out of the ordinary, and official visits by more than two heads of parliament at the same time are extremely rare, according to Knesset statement.
The seven heads of parliament this morning attended the parliamentary seminar at the Knesset which included discussions of various subjects with Knesset members from most of the parliamentary groups.
Addressing the assembly, Mukabalisa said that Israel and Rwanda have recently forged strong bonds which she said are yielding better results.
“Israel and Rwanda maintain excellent relations. There has been exchange of working visits between Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu of Israel in July 2016 in Kigali and President Paul Kagame in 2017 in Israel to enhance these relations,” Mukabalisa said.
She said that Rwanda has a unique history characterised by destructive colonialism extremist post-colonial political regimes ruled by divisions, exclusion and hatred that culminated in the genocide against Tutsi in 1994.
But according to Mukabalisa, “After Genocide, our country made encouraging progress. Together, we have strived and worked hard to reconstruct the economy, unite and reconcile our people and transform our society,” she told Knesset members and other delegates.
“We have made the people of Rwanda the focus of all government actions. The reason behind our success is good leadership and accountability, as one cannot exist without the other.”
“Good leaders must be held accountable by their peers and those that they lead. Moreover, the fact that we are united and think ahead of our times contributed a lot in the progress we have made,” said the Speaker.
She added that Rwanda is ready to learn from Israel’s progress and rapid transformation.
“Israel’s flourishing and stable economy, marked by impressive progress in technology, agriculture, energy, trade, security and others has earned you the confidence at global level,” she said.
Mukabalisa, the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies — with highest global parliaments with a female majority addressed a panel discussion on women`s empowerment and gender equality, along with the Chair of the Subcommittee on Combating Trafficking in Women and Prostitution, MK Aliza Lavie (Yesh Atid).
Following his meeting with President Kagame in Kenya’s capital Nairobi last month, Benjamin Netanyahu – Prime Minister of Israel announced his country’s diplomatic decision to open embassy in Kigali.
Currently, Israeli’s Ambassador resides in Ethiopia and has under her responsibility Rwanda, Burundi and Ethiopia.
