KIGALI - The CEO of the Rwanda Development Board (RDB), John Gara, has underscored the value of carrying out research and development in order to identify priority investments in the region.

Gara made the remarks in an interview with The New Times on the sidelines of the just concluded Lake Victoria Basin investment Forum in Mwanza, Tanzania.

"Research is good for indentifying priority areas for investment. When you have new innovations, you will always be ahead of the market,” Gara said.

He added that research is not only good for investments funded by governments, but for private investors as well since it is a critical determinant for the projected output.

"For instance, when you have gold in a country, research and development helps you to know whether you should invest in large or small scale mining,” he added.

Among the resolutions, the investment forum highlighted the need for developing a regional research and development policy to guide coordination and harmonization of research and development activities; facilitate linkage of research to industry; and commercialize research output.

While outlining institutions like KIST that have taken an upper hand in this field, Gara added that RDB has a number of programmes in place that aim at developing research and development.

"Our role is to create an environment which is conducive for research and development of companies,” he said.

The conference also called for the creation of an enabling policy for promoting public/private sector partnership (PPP) to stimulate aquaculture development in the Lake Victoria Basin.

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