Rwanda’s Foreign Affairs Minister Rose Museminali and her counterpart, the Chinese Foreign Affairs Minister Yang Jiechi, yesterday signed an aid and cooperation agreement at the ministry’s offices in Kigali.

While the figure was not specified at the time of going to press, the amount signed is in addition to the USD 7.8m donated last year, for different projects being implemented across the country.

In remarks made to the press after signing the agreement. Minister Museminali made a call for increased Chinese investment in Rwanda.

"China supports Rwanda in areas like agriculture, education through constructing schools, infrastructure like the constructing of important roads in the country, but we want the Chinese investors to enter into the investment, and technology sector and help it to develop more,” said Museminali.

The minister is on an official State visit to Rwanda which is aimed at strengthening bilateral relations between Rwanda and the People’s Republic of China which spans a period of over thirty years now. According to Museminali, the interaction would further cement the good relations between the two countries.

"Our bi-lateral relationship is so good because if out of fifty three African countries, Rwanda is among the four which the minister is going to visit, it shows that our relations are good,” said minister Museminali. She explained that the purpose of the visit was to increase mutual cooperation and aid between the two countries.

Minister Jiech expressed satisfaction at how Rwanda is willing to push further the ties between the two countries.

"I am impressed by the willingness of Rwanda to push these ties further; this is shown by the visit that your President paid to our country while attending the China-Africa cooperation conference in 2006 and also the official visit in 2007,” he said.

He further extended an invitation to the Foreign Affairs minister and other respective ministers to visit china as a way of strengthening more the ties between Rwanda and China.

"Rwanda is our partner and true friend, and we will continue to hold important official visits that are going to see our relationship grow more steadily because there is a lot we can do together,” the Chinese minister underscored.

He also pointed out that China was willing to support investment in Rwanda focusing more on agriculture and the infrastructure sector.

He praised Rwanda’s investment climate saying that the Chinese people who are already investing in Rwanda are satisfied and describe it as excellent.

Minister Jiech also revealed that China is committed and is paying more attention to Africa-China cooperation which is aimed at bringing more development to both partners.

Minister Jiech also toured the Gisozi memorial centre and laid a wreath on the graves of the victims of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.

In his remarks at the memorial site, he said that what happened to Rwanda was a horrendous tragedy which serves as a lesson to the whole world that people need to learn from one another’s experiences to avoid the repetition of such tragedies.

He however, was impressed by the seriousness of the people of Rwanda in wanting to develop their country and how they have united after the genocide.

The Chinese minister will visit three other African countries; Uganda, Malawi and South Africa.

Ends