President Paul Kagame has said that investments should always benefit local communities for the world to achieve development.
“It is not just about returns, it is about what businesses leave behind and how many lives are transformed,” he said. “The more lives are transformed, the better it is for business.”
Kagame made the remarks on Monday, April 27, during a four-day annual high level global conference on Investments and Developing Markets held at Milken Institute in Los Angeles, California.
“The more lives are transformed the better it is for business,” Kagame told business leaders in an off-the-record session with senior government officials, representatives of leading corporations and investors discussing trends and strategies related to increasing investment in developing markets.
Kagame, accompanied by his personal advisor and former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, is expected to use the opportunity to present bankable projects seeking investment in an investor-friendly Rwanda.
Popularly branded as ‘development-oriented’ President, Kagame is also scheduled to highlight investment opportunities in Africa as a bigger market for global investors.
Last year, the same conference attracted 3500 participants with over 700 speakers and 170 sessions.
The Milken Institute is a nonprofit Think Tank determined to increase global prosperity by advancing collaborative solutions that widen access to capital, create jobs and improve health.
For Africa, the institute focuses on matters related to capital markets, trade and financial regulation; tools for sovereign risk management, and regional infrastructure development and financing.
President Kagame speaks to investors at the Milken Institute Global Conference- Los Angeles, 27 April 2015
Kagame in February told East African Capital Markets Conference that he prefers capital markets to foreign aid. “Look at the rest of the world. Capital markets can outweigh what we get in aid by thousands of times,” he said then.
Meanwhile, Tony Blair has been wooing investors to tap into Rwanda, saying the country is ‘corruption free.”
Rwanda is regarded a risk-free economy with a positive growth rate averaging 8% over the past decade.
“Rwanda, Ethiopia and Mozambique are examples of better governance and where economic and investment opportunities are very clear,” Blair told KTPress.
Other sessions Kagame is expected to participate in tomorrow include one on Women and Girls, and ‘global leaders’ debate on Africa’s future, among others.
