The President of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Jin Liqun, on Tuesday, December 3, wrapped up his three-day visit to Rwanda, by emphasizing his institution’s intention to strengthen ties with Rwanda and especially explore more strategic collaborative opportunities of mutual benefit.

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In a press conference with Yusuf Murangwa, the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, on Tuesday, Liqun emphasized the need for expanding the impact of existing projects and said more collaborative projects are in the pipeline. His visit aimed at reviewing existing partnerships and discussing upcoming projects with relevant government institutions.

"Rwanda is not the first sub-Saharan country to join the bank but it is the first country to work with us, " the AIIB president said.

"I would like to see that the projects we finance will showcase the success stories of how the Rwandan government and people are developing their economy.”

Liqun said: "My deep feeling is that you are very lucky to have a very committed government, from president to the prime minister, to the finance ministers, and the cabinet members, and all the way to the rank and file of the people. This country is united and working towards one simple objective; to achieve resilient, sustainable development.”

Headquartered in Beijing, China, the AIIB is a multilateral development bank with a mission to improve social and economic outcomes in Asia and beyond.

According to Murangwa, Rwanda effectively benefited from its partnership with the bank post-Covid-19. The minister underscored that collaborating with the bank positively impacted the country’s private sector post-Covid-19.

"Rwanda joined the bank in 2020 during the Covid-19 period. Ever since we have had had good collaboration, very pragmatic collaboration. We had a project on electrification, digitization, and infrastructure. But also supporting our private sector through our effort of economic recovery after Covid-19,” Murangwa said.

The bank has injected close to US$300 million in the country’s economic recovery fund, infrastructure development projects, and digital acceleration efforts.

"Some of the money that we used to support the private sector to get access to finance so as to continue operating, post-Covid-19, was from the bank,” the minister explained.