UAE, Rwanda sign economic and technical cooperation agreement

Sheikh Shakhboot Bin Nahyan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of State, and President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, have reviewed ways to further boost bilateral ties between the two nations in various fields of interest.

This came as Sheikh Shakhboot met, in the capital, Kigali, with the Rwandan leader, and conveyed to him the greetings of President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, and His Highness Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, and their wishes for further progress and development to Rwanda and its people.

The President of Rwanda reciprocated the greetings, and wished continued progress and prosperity to the UAE government and people. He affirmed that the UAE-Rwanda relations are steadily growing, noting the numerous opportunities to accelerate cooperation for the higher good of both nations.

On another note, the UAE Minister of State met with Dr Vincent Biruta, Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and Prof Nshuti Manasseh, the Rwandan Minister of State in Charge of East African Community at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and conveyed to them the greetings of Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

During the two meetings, the prospects for boosting investment and economic cooperation and accelerating projects between the two nations were reviewed, and an agreement on consolidating economic and technical collaboration was signed.

Dr. Biruta congratulated the UAE for the successful hosting of Expo 2020 Dubai, including the various achievements made during the world’s greatest show, as well as the impressive organisation of the World Government Summit.

During his visit to the east African nation, Sheikh Shakhboot visited Carnegie Mellon University Africa, where he was welcomed by Paula Ingabire, Rwandan Minister of ICT and Innovation. He was briefed on the university’s laboratories, activities and technological innovations, especially in the field of Artificial Intelligence, where he noted the importance of using ground-breaking technology for social welfare.

Meanwhile Rwanda is keen to have the UAE’s cooperation to utilise geospatial data in its developmental projects in key sectors, a senior official told Emirates News Agency (WAM).

“We are looking at [cooperation with UAE in] space sector. One of the things we’re looking at is how do we leverage data in general, but very specifically geospatial data, to support some of the programmes and policies that we are implementing in agriculture, education, mining, and infrastructure development,” said Paula Ingabire, Rwandan Minister of ICT and Innovation.

In an exclusive interview with WAM at Rwandan earlier in February Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai, she noted that the geospatial data is globally being leveraged and utilised in policy decisions and programme implementation.

“We know UAE is quite advanced in this area and we would like to learn from the UAE,” affirmed Ingabire who is a known technology enthusiast. She is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) School of Engineering and Sloan School of Management, in the System Design and Management programme.

Asked whether Rwanda is looking for the UAE’s cooperation for launching its own satellite or sharing geospatial data from the Emirati space assets, the minister said, “It’s actually a mix of both. The starting point is building capacity. You can have access to different geospatial datasets, and you have the capacity and the ability to mine, analyse and translate that into a way that creates value for us. So that’s our starting point,” she explained about the potential cooperation with the UAE.

Being able to have those analytical skills and tools will enable Rwanda to use that data for valuable insights in its policies and programmes being implemented in the country, Ingabire emphasised.

“We also have ambitions, obviously, to partner with countries like UAE to build and be able to launch our own satellite. That may be a mid to long term ambition, even as we already think about the low hanging fruit, which is really around building analytical skills and how we can make the best use of these geospatial data,” she explained.

The minister made it clear that Rwanda is keen to cooperate with the UAE in any potential sector.

“The anchor of those kinds of cooperation is around knowledge and skills transfer and building the right capabilities that will allow us to benefit from the experience that UAE has.”

WAM