KIGALI - The Fourth East African Human Resources conference opened in Kigali with an appeal to public and private organisations to increase their efforts in developing their human resources.

The two-day forum, hosted by Rwanda Human Resources Management Association (RHRMA), brought together human resource professionals, academics, consultants and researchers to focus on talent and engagement.

Speaking at the opening of the forum, the Minister of Labour, Anastase Murekezi, urged organisations in East Africa to focus on their human resources because without them, they cannot grow.

"East Africa is emerging as the new frontier for investment, but for us to be able to gain from this, we have to invest in our people,” said Murekezi.

He added that the government had put in place several programs that are helping in the development of the workers. He said this is done both in the public and private sector.

"While Rwanda is endowed with little natural resources, the country values its human capital by ensuring that every Rwandan child gets educated and also ensuring continuous development of workers,” he said.

In her remarks, the General Manager of CIAR Africa, Ruth Kwalanda, said that the forum would, in the next two days, separate myths from reality.

CIAR Africa is a leading professional and corporate training company in the region and is the organizer of the annual forum in East Africa.

"We will assess the global trends, explore the challenges share experiences, learn the models, share strategies that work and debate options at the end,” said Kwalanda.

She anticipated that every participant would go back to their organisations, equipped, challenged and inspired to provide the people expertise to their CEOs, line managers and employees with the overall goal of driving organisational results through people.

The HR professionals will also deliberate on how best to identify the best talents for their organisation as well as keeping them engaged to get the best out of them.

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