The Government intends to focus more on improving service delivery to boost development in different critical areas starting from the economy, good governance, and justice sectors, officials have said as they shared what transpired at the just-concluded Leadership Retreat.

About 300 top leaders from the central government, local government, and invited influential members of the private sector and civil society spent six days at the 14th National Leadership Retreat, which concluded on Thursday at the Rwanda Defence Force Combat Training Centre in Gabiro, Eastern Province.

The retreat focused on assessing Rwanda’s achievements over the last seven years and laying strategies for the future.

In a post-retreat news briefing in Kigali yesterday, the Minister in charge of Cabinet Affairs, Stella Ford Mugabo, and other senior officials told journalists that leaders will focus more on how to better manage government contracts to execute public works and improve critical sectors such as agriculture, health, and education.

"The retreat was marked by thorough discussions about these issues,” Mugabo said, adding that resolutions from the retreat will be released by Monday.

Officials said the Government will also continue to mobilise Rwandans to save for retirement and healthcare, embrace the use of technology while making transactions instead of using cash notes, fight climate change, work in cooperatives, and keep safety in their communities.

The process to empower local leaders so they can deliver better services to people at the grassroots level will also continue as good service delivery is considered very critical in achieving the set goals.

"This retreat was really focused on service delivery. Giving good service is not only about serving with a smile but the responsibility we have to meet the needs of Rwandans,” said Prof. Anastase Shyaka, the chief executive of Rwanda Governance Board (RGB).

Shyaka said the resolutions from the retreat will focus on how to improve services that the Government renders to the people.

"Decisions will need to be made faster and in a timely manner to provide good services,” Shyaka said.

‘Be innovative’

At the closure of the retreat on Thursday, President Paul Kagame urged the country’s top leaders to be more innovative and use available resources to deliver efficient public service.

The Head of State told the leaders that they need to always work hard to achieve the country’s ambitions, warning them that complacency plays in the interests of their detractors.

"By not doing what we are supposed to do, we are accepting the dictates of those who tell us to limit our ambitions,” Kagame said.

At the retreat, leaders discussed the country’s achievements over the last seven years in line with the government’s seven-year programme and laid strategies for achieving Vision 2020 whose deadline is now three years away.

They were also supposed to use the retreat as a chance to brainstorm on the envisioned Vision 2050, whose detailed plan will be finalised before the end of the year, according to the Minister of State in charge of Economic Planning, Dr Uzziel Ndagijimana.

But Dr Ndagijimana said at yesterday’s news briefing that Vision 2050 was not discussed at the retreat although the blueprint is being developed and could be ready at the end of the year since it will replace the country’s Vision 2020.

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