Kagame was speaking at the 15th National Dialogue Council, locally known as Umushyikirano, which was ended on Tuesday.
The Head of State said that the two-day dialogue had been a productive, thanking participants s for their time and ideas.
“I hope you agree with me that this Umushyikirano has been productive. I thank you for contributing your time and ideas,” he said.
Kagame said that they discussed about values for prosperity which are worthwhile.
“Let me emphasize a few important points which have more value. All we do, we work for Rwandans. These values cover some elements like serving, respecting and listening to citizens, fighting corruption and abuse of office,” he said.
“These values also include using public resources effectively by avoiding their use in personal interests. We should also treat every Rwandan equally and give women and girls the respect they deserve in particular,” he said.
Kagame stressed the alarming drug abuse, saying that it is an epidemic that the world should fight seriously.
“This is an issue of concern. We are too late to fight it, we should have started to think about it before and understand its prevalence. We should terminate them in our country,” he said.
He said that it is an issue that has also affected elderly population but added that they should not allow Rwandan youth to ruin themselves with drugs.
“It is a very tough issue because the demand is high, the supply is equally high, the amount of money involved is in billions and billions of dollars. It is commerce in some economies of countries, just to understand how serious it has become,” he observed.
He said that as a global issue that also affects Rwanda, they should give it a particular attention to prevent them from destroying attained development.
“Rwanda is not an island, drugs are scattered around the world. We should fight them in two ways; to prevent them from entering the country as well as fighting those that have already entered. This is a problem that we should fight as we continue to teach,” he urged.
During this year’s Umushyikirano, participants discussed the National Strategy for Transformation, Values for Prosperity and the Youth at the Centre of Transformation.
It brought together about 2,000 Rwandans including central and local government officials, business community, civil society, other members of the Rwandan community and diplomats.
The meeting came up with eight resolutions under four categories which are education, health, economy and culture.
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