RUBAVU - The second day of the Leadership Retreat in Rubavu discussed key areas of focus required to accelerate economic growth and build a more prosperous Rwanda - productive agriculture, growing SMEs, improved infrastructure as well more effective planning, monitoring and evaluation.

It began with updates on Rwanda’s progress toward achieving  Vision2020 targets.  Echoing President Kagame’s call to transform the country more rapidly, John Rwangombwa, the Minister for Finance and head of the economic cluster, told delegates that although much progress had been made, there was a need to be more ambitious in the targets the Government sets itself.

"We are halfway to Vision 2020 and our goal of a more prosperous nation for all Rwandans. However, if we are to achieve this objective, we need to work harder on identified priorities in order to step up the pace of change,” Rwangombwa said.

"This has been our focus today - giving our farmers and businesspeople the support they need to generate wealth and lift our nation out of povert”.

The meeting heard that the Rwandan economy was performing well in the face of the international economic crisis. However, there was a need to increase agricultural productivity in order to raise incomes, to increase the number of small businesses to help tackle Rwanda’s trade imbalance and stimulating investment, and increasing access to electricity.

The meeting also focussed on improving the business and investment climate, particularly through accelerating reforms to sustain Rwanda’s performance in the World Bank’s Doing Business rankings which saw the country move from 150th to 67th in the world the last three years.

Discussions continued into the evening as Ministers and other leaders discussed priority actions to tackle these economic challenges.

Ends