President Paul Kagame upon arrival in Egypt
President Kagame today arrived in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt where he will attend the ‘Africa 2018 Forum’, an international gathering hosted under the High Patronage of President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi of the Arab Republic of Egypt.
The forum aims to promote greater economic integration and investment flows into Africa.
This year’s edition takes place from 8-9 December 2018 under the theme “Bold Leadership and Collective Commitment: Advancing Intra-African Investments” and is organised by the Government of Egypt through its Ministry of Investment and International Cooperation, and COMESA Regional Investment Agency (RIA).
It focuses on developing intra-African investments towards creating the world’s largest trading bloc of 1.2billion people.
The President will attend the Youth Entrepreneurs Day Presidential Inter-generational Dialogue where he is expected to deliver remarks alongside President Al Sisi of Egypt and young entrepreneurs from across the continent.
The two-day Forum convenes more than 1,000 leaders in business and policy from around the world.
With Egypt taking over the chairmanship of the African Union in 2019, the Forum helps shape Africa’s agenda in 2019 and precedes the Intra-African trade fair that will take place in Cairo between the 11-17 December 2018.
Africa 2018 is a unique business-to-business and government-to-business platform, bringing together policymakers, financiers, leading industrialists, and young entrepreneurs.
In Egypt, Kagame was given a warm welcome and held closed discussions with Egyptian officials ahead of the forum.
The forum will also focus on the Gender agenda: Moving forward together, with discussions on ideals of women taking centre stage in driving change on the continent.
Ahead of the forum AU Special Envoy Bineta Diop anticipated more talk on women involvement in the continent’s leadership.
Diop said “We need to have more women leaders that are mediating because we have the skills, knowledge and the talent and we can bring the peace”
On the subject of women’s involvement women leaders on the continent also said that women can make a significant impact basing on the fact that women account for 51% of the continents population.
On the sidelines of the forum, Liquid Telecom announced US$400m investment in Egypt following completion of ‘Cape to Cairo’ link,
This is part of a major partnership with Telecom Egypt which includes network infrastructure and data centres, according to the Group Chairman Strive Masiyiwa and Group CEO Nic Rudnick.
