KIGALI - President Paul Kagame, yesterday, chaired the 8th meeting of the Presidential Advisory Council (PAC), which discussed new approaches to drive Rwanda’s socioeconomic growth, focusing on strategic investment and a renewed focus on vocational training.

Welcoming members to the first day of the bi-annual consultation, Kagame said: "I look forward to building on our collective experience to get Rwanda’s key strategic investments on track, as well as improve skills training for growth of small and medium size enterprises - these issues remain critically important to nation’s economic development”.

Singling out the private sector as the backbone of Rwanda’s development, PAC members discussed how to boost Rwanda’s infrastructure as a transport hub in the region and how to improve the country’s competitiveness in exports.

The government established the Workforce Development Agency (WDA) and incubation centres to improve skills and increase labour productivity in the economy, and stimulate private investment and development of SMEs.

The PAC meeting discussed innovative ways to significantly scale up and improve the quality of technical and vocational training to meet Rwanda’s needs, as well as to urgently link the growing entrepreneurship culture with the skills training programs.

Today, PAC members will visit key investment projects as well as technical and vocational training institutions before concluding the meeting on Wednesday

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