The City of Kigali has signed a deal with the Hunan Province of China to increase trade, economic interflows and people-to-people exchanges with each other. The agreement was signed on Thursday, July 29 in the City of Guangzhou, with James Kimonyo, Rwanda’s Envoy to China signing on the behalf of Kigali, while He Baoxiang, the Vice Governor of Hunan signed for the province. The Rwandan Embassy in China said the agreement will give an opportunity to more Rwandan products to enter Hunan, especially coffee and dried chilli. In addition, the Chinese province will also encourage and support their companies to invest in Rwanda. With a Gross Domestic Product of more than $600 billion, Hunan ranks among the top 10 Chinese provinces with the largest economy. It is also one of the top 30 largest sub-national economies in the world. The Province boasts 10 competitive industrial clusters, including construction machinery, electronics, new materials, petrochemicals, automobiles and parts, mining, and agro-processing. Kimonyo said that the signing of the agreement is another milestone in the relations between Rwanda and China. He noted that Kigali looks forward to deepening cooperation with Hunan in various sectors including investment, trade, science and technology, health, tourism and education among others. Baoxiang said: “We hope it will enhance the people-to-people exchanges between two places, especially culture, economic and trade exchanges. I believe this cooperation will further promote mutually beneficial and win-win results, “Hunan hopes it can contribute to the development of Rwanda with concerted effort with governments and businesses from both sides,” Located in the South Central region of China, Hunan is one of the country’s most populous provinces with more than 69 million people. It is Chinas major food production base. Since ancient times, it has been known as “the land of fish and rice”. The province boasts strong agricultural innovation capacity and influential innovative agro-products such as hybrid rice, new varieties of hot chili, and hybrid cotton.
