Rwanda’s High Commissioner to India, William Nkurunziza, has encouraged Indians to consider investing in African countries, like Rwanda, and called for closer ties between African countries and their Asian counterparts.

Nkurunziza was addressing professionals and students of African studies at the Indian Council for World Affairs in New Delhi, yesterday.

He said that Rwanda’s rapid recovery from the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, underscores its economic, social and political potential on the African continent.
"Rwanda has an immense potential and opportunity for investment of which India can focus on as a means of attaining its prospect to prosperity,” he said.

Nkurunziza noted Rwanda and India have a profound and excellent bilateral relationship. He said this relationship resulted into the recent Africa-Asia summit 2010 selecting Rwanda as suitable place for building a regional technical centre to serve central African countries in skills development.

The function was also attended by Metasebia Tadesse, the Ethiopian High commissioner to India and former Indian High Commissioners to various African countries and scholars on African affairs

The former Indian envoys also stressed the need to raise awareness on the available opportunities in Africa and Asian countries, by launching massive campaigns and media coverage on both continents.

"Indians are long time friends of Africans and most of them need to visit African countries like Rwanda, so as to be opened to the existing opportunities out there. This will involve promoting sharing of knowledge and skills so as to have our countries grow,” Amb. Kailash Lal Agrawal, a former envoy to Sudan, said.

Professor Suresh Kumar, a renowned Indian writer on Rwandan politics, was also highly commended for leading in the quest of giving a positive image of social, economic and political life in Africa.

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