Editor,

I wish to respond to Sam Nkusi’s letter to the editor, "The private sector should do more” (The New Times, August 4).

I would normally agree with the writer that these kinds of services (like rolling out internet infrastructure in the Kigali  Special Economic Zone) should preferably be provided by the private sector.

But where this has not happened and the private sector has not stepped up to the plate or has not done it in an expeditious manner, for whatever reason, then the public sector should do it.

Such infrastructure could then eventually be sold off to private sector operators or given to them to manage commercially while it remains under public ownership.

The important thing is that we cannot wait forever for the private sector to make up its mind to install essential infrastructure.

As President Paul Kagame has said, had we waited for the private sector to make up its mind about it, we would still be waiting for our first five-star hotel or an airline worth the name or even the first mobile phone operator.

Mwene Kalinda, Rwanda