The Chairman of the Rwanda Demobilisation and Reintegration Commission (RDRC), John Sayinzoga, has commended Germany’s notable increase of development assistance to Rwanda.

Germany Friday increased its commitments for development cooperation to Rwanda by almost 60 percent after two-day bilateral negotiations, held at the foreign ministry (Minaffet), in Kimihurura.

"The negotiations went very well because we wanted them to trim down on technical assistance and channel more funds into financial support and thus into the general budget support, and that has been the final result,” Sayinzoga noted after the meeting in which he participated.

Germany’s new commitments are Euros 38.5m for bilateral technical and financial cooperation for the period of 2009-2010.

Euros 26.5 m will go to financial cooperation programmes and, Euros 12 million for technical cooperation. The RDRC will be given Euros 1m of the total Euros 38.5 million.

"They have been assisting us (RDRC) in three areas including providing medical care to ex-combatants injured at war, facilitating their reintegration into civilian life and, teaching them vocational skills,” Sayinzoga said, noting that the skills development aspect was later transferred to the Workforce Development Agency which is helping train all Rwandans.

"As to what concerns medical care and reintegration, that sum of money they have given us will be added to other funds we have.”

The German delegation emphasized its willingness to support all necessary reforms within the context of its development cooperation.

Germany which first made commitments for Rwanda’s general budget support in 2005 has been supporting the country in implementing its Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS).

The total volume of bilateral technical and financial cooperation since cooperation the 1960s amounts to Euros 547.4 million.

Ends