The Secretary General of the Commonwealth Don McKinnon has praised President Paul  Kagame’s speech at the Commonwealth Business Forum on Wednesday.

Kagame delivered a key note address under the theme ‘Critical Steps Towards a Competitive East Africa’ to the Forum, which preceded the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm) that started in Kampala yesterday.

McKinnon wrote on his blog: "The highlight of my evening’s entertainment was a speech from the Rwandan president Paul Kagame, a close ally of (Ugandan President Yoweri) Museveni and the most vocal of those aspiring to join the Commonwealth.”

"A tall, sprightly man, he spoke eloquently of the East African economy and community, of the trauma and now transition experienced by his own country, and his hopes for its future. One of those hopes is to visit me in New Zealand, where he wants to talk farming,” the former New Zealand foreign minister said on a blog where he has been posting his recollections on Chogm activities.

His comments on President Kagame’s speech were under a subtitle: ‘Aspirant Rwanda: a generation after the genocide.’

Rwanda applied to join the 53-member state Commonwealth group, which is composed of Britain and its former colonies.

In his address to the Forum, Kagame, who also attended Chogm, urged EAC members to create conducive working conditions for East Africans and foreigners.

He urged member states to introduce a 24 hour cargo transport system, and said that Rwanda is in the process of waiving work permits on professionals from the region.

Rwanda and Burundi joined the East African Community in June, raising the number of member states to five with a combined market of about 120 million people.

Traditional EAC members are Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

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