Editor, RE: “Youth break ground in entrepreneurship” (The New Times, March 6). Allow me to express gratitude to The New Times for this inspiring story. We need more such stories our local entrepreneurs so there is true inspiration for our young people. We also need to demystify this trend in public procurement where local companies are perceived to be not capable of doing the work. We can learn from such countries as Malaysia, South Korea, Singapore and Ethiopia. The notion of Made-in-Rwanda will then become reality. But just some food for thought; we can only export what we produce... By the way, for some of us slightly older, back in the 70’s watches from Japan (Casio and the likes) were sold on kilo due to poor quality. Does anyone remember the Hyundai (from South Korea) of early 90’s? They were cheap and of low quality. Look at the stature of Hyundai today — quite impressive. How about software from India? Anyone in the know would tell you the applications coming from there were of poor quality in the 90s but today no one in the developed world can compete with India as far as the quality of apps is concerned. So my point is: We will only learn by doing and not just picking the best things from other corners of the world and hoping for the best. Big ups to these two young pioneers but all of us in business should commit to start making components locally. Always maximize our competitive advantage. Al
