Ambassador of Rwanda to Poland Mrs. Christine Nkulikiyinka was counted among the hundreds invitees of the 2nd edition of POLANDAFRICA business Congress last week. This congress was held in Łódź, a central city of Poland from 27th to 28th of November at the European Institute-Łódź.
Unfortunately, among the whole number of business people from African countries who applied for visas to attend the congress , less than 30% of them were able to obtain them and to attend. The representative of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs present at the congress Mr Piotr Miśliwiec had to answer a lot of questions about this refusal of visa , and especially during the closed side event that he conducted with the Ambassadors and representatives of embassies present at the congress.
Nevertheless, the objective of the congress organizers, the Central Poland Chamber of Commerce- Łódź and its president Mr Witold Gerlicz, which was to bring together business representatives as well as government officials (of both Poland and African countries) was reached. Angola was the partner country of the congress and the delegation was led by Hon. Mrs. Mrs. Maria Idalina de Oliveira Valente.
Present were among others, government officials from Rwanda, Somalia, Kenya, Mozambique, Cameroun, South Africa, Burkina Faso, Malawi and Mauritania as well as Business representatives from Angola, Algérie, Burkina Faso, Egypte, Maroc, Mauritanie, Malawi, Nigeria, Afrique du Sud, Rwanda, Sénégal, République Démocratique du Congo, République du Congo.
Rwanda was represented by Her Excellency Ambassador Christine Nkulikiyinka; she was attending this congress for the 2nd time. In her own words, she emphasized that “one of the reasons why she came back this year, is because she have realized that Polish entrepreneurs are less reluctant to come to Africa and she wants to inform them on the opportunities offered by Rwanda”.
She said this during a Polish-Rwandan Business Forum side event organized in the evening of the first day of the congress, when she was meeting with around 20 entrepreneurs, among them some who already have visited and are interested in investing in Rwanda and have began to take steps towards starting business there, or those who wish to know more in order to go further. In her opinion, she sees a great potential to encouraging business trade and investment between both countries, through win-win business relationship.
She stated that it was unfortunate that of all more than 60 Rwandans who manifested the wish to attend by registering and applied for polish visas, only one was able to get it and to attend. Indeed it is only Mr Isaac Bizumuremyi, a lawyer and entrepreneur, Managing Director of REGAL MINING who managed to attend the congress and was able to make first contacts and to see in what way his mining company could benefit from Polish cooperation and partnership. These opportunity has been denied to Rwandan and Polish business people who had expressed keen interest to have B2B meetings.
The visa issue was also regretted by former Ambassador to Rwanda (based in Nairobi) Mr. Wojciech Jasiński who stated that there is a urgent need to sort out the issue.
Other participants at the Rwanda-Polish forum were a few Rwandans who study or work in Poland. This congress being about partnership and cooperation between Poland and African countries, the Ambassador state that it is clear that the young Rwandans can be a bridge between the two business communities, especially when it comes to language barriers and culture differences. She called upon the Polish business people to take advantage out of this fact.
The Polish-Rwandan business forum here mentioned was successfully organized by the Embassy of Rwanda with the support and efforts of the members of the Rwandan Diaspora in Poland.
At the end of the Polish-Rwandan Business Forum, the discussions had shown that there are still few steps to go before total trust and confidence needed between Poland and African Countries among which Rwanda can be reached. Important instruments to be negotiated by both governments are an investment protection treaty and a double taxation agreement.
Honorable Killion Munyama, member of the Polish Parliament and vice Chairman of the Parliamentary group for Africa who attended the Rwanda event commended the initiative taken to have a bilateral event and expressed his will to collaborate with HE Christine Nkulikiyinka towards improving the bilateral business cooperation by addressing issues mentioned in the meeting and others that might arise.
Polish companies present and interested to take further cooperation with Rwanda can be found in the following sectors: Construction, Production of building materials, ICT, Investment consulting firms, Geo-Mining, Real Estate, Lifewave distributor (Bio-electrodes), to name a few.
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