The World Export Development Forum (WEDF) kicks off today with high expectations from the over 500 participants, including business leaders and policy makers from 73 countries from across the world.

Under the theme ‘SMEs: Creating jobs through trade’, delegates at the forum will look at areas with investment potential, encourage the local private sector and SMEs to build partnerships with foreign entrepreneurs as well as identify bottlenecks that hold back SMEs in the country.

In an exclusive interview with The New Times, Francis Gatare, the chief executive of Rwanda Development Board, said the Forum will be a meeting point for local and foreign entrepreneurs to create business links and develop ways to work together.

"While many multinational corporations are already here, we expect this Forum to continue rising as presenters from various multinational corporations including Pepsi Cola, DHL International, Export Import Bank of India and the World Bank will grace the event to share their observations,” Gatare said.

"We are also confident that it will be the beginning of opening up more Rwanda SMEs to the international market.”

He added that the Forum will also listen to the SMEs challenges, brainstorm and emerge with concrete solutions and a way forward.

Being a flagship event of the international Trade Centre (ITC) the forum will attract high profile delegates including, President Paul Kagame, ITC executive director Arancha González, Tesfaye Abneh, the first lady of Ethiopia, entrepreneur Ashish Thakkar, former WTO director-general Pascal Lamy, among others.

Ministers of trade from across Africa are among the expected attendants.

The sessions during the three-day conference will cover a number of topics with a bias towards SME development.

Most of the deliberations will revolve around topics such as unlocking SME competitiveness for diversification, boosting SME participation in international trade, e-solutions for SME exports growth, building a brand, among others.

Gatare said having the event hosted on the African soil for the first time was an indicator that the continent was on the rise noting that most African countries relied on SMEs as drivers of the economy.

"Africa by and large is currently the world’s remaining frontier for double digit investment returns. With a rapidly growing disposable income base among its populations, this is definitely a market to watch,” Gatare said.

SMEs have increasingly been urged to have meaningful social impact, and expand the employment opportunities.

Pierre Munyura, the local head of coffee processors and exporters, told The New Times that exporters at the Forum will be looking to discuss ways to facilitate the smooth export procedures to address the challenges they face.

"It will be an opportunity to make connections which will facilitate business deals in the future with other businesses people from the region and around the world,” Munyura said.

Rwanda is hosting the forum at the time the ITC, a subsidiary of the World Trade Organisation, is celebrating 50 years.