Ties between Turkey and Rwanda grew stronger in the previous week following the visit of the Turkish Foreign Affairs Minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu.

During his visit, the two governments signed bilateral cooperation agreements in technical and vocational education, as well as eliminating the need for visas for diplomatic passport holders.

Following the signing, The New Times’ Collins Mwai spoke to the Turkish Ambassador to Rwanda, Mehmet Raif Karaca, to shade more light on the ties between the two countries.

Below are the excerpts:

The Turkish Embassy in Kigali finally opened last week after a year of waiting. Why is it important for you to have an embassy in Kigali?

We were actually late to open the embassy. The Rwandan embassy in Ankara opened a while back. Turkish Airlines had already started flying to Rwanda. Normally, Turkish Airlines do not fly to a country where we do not have an embassy, but in this case, Rwanda was presenting a lot of potential and prospects.

We attached great importance to Rwanda. We know of its importance to the region. Rwanda may be a small country but presents a lot of opportunities due to its geographical location.

I came here one and a half years ago but it took quite some time to open our mission as we were looking for a suitable building. We want the embassy to showcase reflect the characteristics of Turkey in various ways.

We believe that Rwanda holds a lot of potential not only as a country by itself but also as a stepping stone into the region and other countries in Africa. The fact that Turkish Airlines flies here seven times a week is evidence of the trust that we have in Rwanda.

During your Foreign Affairs Minister’s visit to the country, a few bilateral agreements were signed in addition to those signed last year. What is the expected impact of all these agreements?

When you start to establish relations with a country, there are many aspects of partnership and cooperation–economic, social, political, cultural, military and security, among others. Those agreements will lay ground for the frame work of our relations in the days to come. It will guide us in which direction to take. Last year, we signed five agreements in total, three of them were in the field of military cooperation and two of them in the field of security.

This time around, it was an agreement on education cooperation, one on abolition of visa’s between diplomatic passport holders of the two countries to enable officials, to travel easily, and the last one was an MoU for the ministries of foreign affairs at all levels.

There are two more agreements yet to be signed in the field of economic cooperation and there will be another agreement in agriculture cooperation.

In fact our minister wanted to sign the three other agreements when he was here as well, but just recently, two weeks ago, the cabinet was changed and we have new cabinet ministers. Our ministers wanted to come themselves to see Rwanda. The agreements are ready for signing and we expect it to happen soon.

On the visa issue, is there a chance that we could see Rwandan business get visas with ease to facilitate access to the Turkish market?

The most important step in this direction was that since one and a half months ago, we started to issue visas here. Rwandans do not need to go to Kampala (Uganda), we issue them relatively easier if they fill the forms and meet the requirements.

For those who travel to Turkey often, we can issue multiple entry visas. As for the complete abolition of visas for all citizens, this is something of a larger scale. It will be the next step. We would like Rwandan citizens to come, because Rwandans and their business community present opportunities. But it is a gradual process having in mind that other countries would ask for the same. But my colleagues and I are doing everything to avail visas easily to those who need them.

There is a growing Turkish Business Community in Rwanda, from your interactions with them, what’s their experience so far?

Their experience has been good. Rwanda has been topping a number of international ratings when it comes to business facilitation, competition, transparency, cutting red tape, good governance, good banking, proper IT systems, etc. Rwanda is also renowned as safe and secure, which is also necessary for business.

The role of government is to lay ground for the business people, the moment this has been put in place, businesses find their way. The Turkish businesses I have been talking to say that Rwanda is one of the safest and easiest places to do business in Africa. People in Turkey have been hearing about Rwanda. This will attract other businesses to take interest in Rwanda. This is just the beginning, more is yet to come.

Rwandan business people have an interest in the Turkish market. Do they stand a chance?

So far, Rwandan businesses who have been to Turkey have come back with a good impression. But the trade numbers between the two countries dont reflect the potential of trade. It is also heavily imbalanced in our favour, we export to way more than we import from Rwanda. We believe that trade can be sustainable and beneficial if it is balanced. We do not want to only sell and not buy anything in return. What Rwanda wants to sell to Turkey is mainly the responsibility of Rwandan businesses. This can be done by going to Turkey to establish what they can sell well. We are willing to work with them to give them ideas on how they can penetrate the market easily.

This increase in and balance of trade will be facilitated by direct communication, connection between the two countries. For the trade to be stepped up, we also need proper road and water transport systems. We follow with enthusiasm joint infrastructure projects being put up in the region. This will help in the movement of goods between the two countries.

What areas could they fare well in?

Agro-industries, including coffee. The problem with coffee is that though Turkish people are fond of coffee, they use Arabica coffee. However, Robusta coffee is also seeing a growing market.

There are lots of fruits and vegetables that we are importing and exist in Rwanda. With the signing of the economic agreements, these will be easier in coming days. Rwanda should not only aim at producing and exporting agricultural produce and raw materials. Many things can be produced and sent to Turkey. Rather than sell raw materials, they can be processed here to add value. Turkey is now considering some of its industries where value can be added in Rwanda before goods are released in the market. In this case, Rwanda would serve as a production and distribution centre in areas such as textile and leather industries. This would be a win-win situation for the two countries.

Rwanda is part of a regional bloc, the East African Community; does Turkey have interests in the bloc?

Like we have seen in the European Union, when countries come together to form an economic bloc and improve their trade opportunities, they increase their collective wealth compared to going alone. We follow with close interest what is happening in east Africa, we support it and this will also facilitate goods for Turkish products when we have a single bloc.

The past years have seen Rwandan students travel to Turkey for higher learning can you say that the initiative has had any impact?

The human capital factor is the base of everything. We are doing all these things so that people’s lives can improve.

Students from Rwanda are going to Turkey; we see them as an important pillar for our bilateral relations and partnership. Strong relations will be based on their existence. They will play a huge role in economic cooperation, already I understand that students in Turkey are already working as translators for Rwandan businesses going to Turkey.

Those who are already back home have been working in construction projects ran by Turkish companies here. We have to maintain this trend in a realistic and productive manner.

Turkey is obviously more developed that Rwanda and has recently committed to sharing lessons and experiences with Rwanda. Having in mind Rwanda’s ambitions where could you share lessons?

Building a solid infrastructure base, transport system, communications system are critical for the development of any economy. Good governance is already in place. The Rwandan government has been making investments in the right areas, such as transport and energy. Agriculture is also a critical area as well as IT. We are willing to share experiences in these areas to support development.

One of the similarities between the two countries, is the refugee situation brought about by the instability in their neighbourhoods. What lessons do you think can be shared from the experiences of the refugee situations?

We have about three million Syrians in Turkey at the moment. The government of Turkey has spent a lot of money trying toease their situation. We consider them as brothers and sisters and we are doing our best to help out. We keep an open door policy and we do not lock out anybody and the number keeps growing. Since the Second World War, the world is yet to see a refugee crisis, we are learning as we go along. On the other side, the Western countries are yet to come forward to help ease the situation. Out of our expenditure of about $11 billion, the total foreign aid we have got is only about $470 million. From the two countries’ (Rwanda and Turkey) experience we have seen that no matter the intentions of the host country, some people will always criticise and politicise it for their own intentions. This has happened in Turkey and I understand that at times Rwanda is also unfairly targeted.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw