KIGALI - The changing trends of the world’s economy have forced the government to rethink the way forward in the realizing the country’s 20-year plan, referred to as Vision 2020.

Addressing the press at the Prime Minister’s office yesterday, the Minister of Finance, John Rwangombwa revealed that the just concluded Leadership Retreat held in Rubavu, resolved that Vision 2020 be aligned with transforming Rwanda into a middle income economy.

"We are half way into the implementation of vision 2020; we intend to do a comprehensive review of the progress made so far and the challenges ahead,” said Rwangombwa.

"However, we realized that, with the current global economic growth, per capita income that was projected in the vision 2020 ten years ago will have to be revised,” he added.

The per capita income in vision 2020 document is currently projected at US$900 but Rwangomba said that globally, the per capita income of a middle income country by 2020 will be around US$ 3,500.

Addressing the same press conference, the Minister of Cabinet Affairs, Protais Musoni revealed that the 2010 retreat resolved to put in place a new single reporting framework for implementation of all government priorities.

For the first time, the 2010 retreat was divided into three clusters - the governance cluster under the stewardship of the Minister of Local of Government, James Musoni, the Economic cluster chaired by Rwangombwa while the Social Affairs cluster was guided by the Minister of Health, Dr. Richard Sezibera.

"We plan to extensively explore opportunities in the regional blocs that Rwanda is a member, make the land system simpler and iron out delays that are preventing investments into Rwanda and frustrating citizens and minimize bureaucracy across government,” revealed James Musoni.

He added that his cluster would like to see a strong voice given to citizens on the delivery of services in their areas. He also revealed that during the retreat, leaders agreed to take concrete actions to ensure that leaders at all levels are more transparent and accountable to the citizens.

Rwangombwa on his part said that his cluster agreed to step up the crop intensification program, offer more support to farmers, speed up of the electrification program and support Small and Medium Enterprises.

Rwangombwa said that plans are underway to add 100,000 hectares to the crop intensification program in 2010, protecting farmers from unpredictable weather and increase storage for crops.

"We agreed to clean up areas holding back Rwanda’s ranking in the World Bank Doing Business report to help it attract more investors,” said Rwangombwa.

Under the energy boosting program, the government plans to distribute 200,000 energy saving lights, complete the hydropower plant at Rukarara and seven other micro-hydro power plants, as well as providing biogas to 20 schools, 3000 homes and all prisons.

Dr. Richard Sezibera who chaired the social cluster said that this year, 3,000 classrooms will be constructed while 7,000 teachers will be recruited.

Under the same program of providing quality education, 670,000 textbooks and 50,000 laptops under the One-Laptop-Per-Child programme will be distributed.

The monitoring of implementation of the resolutions will be done by a Joint Delivery Committee (JDC) consisting of officials from the President’s Office, the Prime Minister’s Office, the Ministries of Local Government, Finance and Health.

Also, during the retreat, leaders agreed to be citizen-centred, to work as a team, and promote integrity. 

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