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Kagame made the remarks on Tuesday as he addressed the 7th World Government Summit in Dubai.

The annual Summit has brought together over 4000 participants from 140 world countries including the Heads of States and Governments, International Organizations and different experts.

The Summit is dedicated to shaping the future of governments worldwide with a focus on how they can harness innovation and technology to solve universal challenges facing humanity.

Kagame said the United Arab Emirates is an inspiration to many countries including Rwanda, for its example of placing high value on people and the private sector to achieve remarkable result.

“You have shown the world how vision, leadership and good stewardship of natural resources transforms scarcity into prosperity,” Kagame said.

In the 7th World Goverment Summit, Rwanda was selected as the guest country.
“In the last 25 years in Rwanda, we have worked to build a new nation based on the values of unity and opportunity for all our citizens,” Kagame said.

“We have made significant progress over the years, but there is much more to do. However, none of this would have been possible without the right foundation,” he added.

Kagame explained that civic participation and the culture where leaders and institutions exist to respond to citizens’ expectations was key in this journey.

“This was complemented by a focus on civic participation and trust ensuring that everyone is included in shaping the country’s future,”Kagame said, adding that Bringing all Rwandans together in a common enterprise also meant guaranteeing the rights of those who were previously marginalised, particularly women.

“As a result of this social contract, the government has been able to simultaneously invest heavily in our human capital and also in ambitious infrastructure and technology for our future prosperity,” he revealed.

“Although the means available do not always match the scale of our ambitions, we have done our best to get the most out of the resources we do have and find creative ways to fill the gap,” he emphasized.

Kagame explained: “Good governance and accountability is central to everything we do. In Rwanda’s case, we are working to reverse a legacy of extreme corruption and division in our society that nearly completely destroyed our country.

“If there is one lesson from Rwanda’s experience, it is optimism. If Rwanda can make it to this point it means that there are no insurmountable challenges, provided that people work together towards a common goal,”Kagame said.

Rudahunga who has been for long suffering from chronic illnesses died on Monday, Bishop Smaragde Mbonyintege has told IGIHE.

Rudahunga was ordained priest in 1953, being the 111th person to be ordained priest in Rwanda.

In a yet to be published exclusive interview with IGIHE, Rudahunga who held the honorary title of Bishop said he did so many works for the Catholic Church in Rwanda including Kabgayi Minor Seminar.

At 97, Bishop Eulade Rudahunga was the oldest priest in Rwanda.

Kagame made the remarks on Monday as he attended the meeting on Digital Transformation in Africa on the second day of the 32nd Ordinary Session of the African Union.

Kagame said: “Yesterday at the opening ceremony, I mentioned that “the future of the global economy is digital”. I should have added: “and government”.

“E-government is a powerful tool for improving both the quality and accessibility of government services,” he explained.

“Digital identity is the start of a long and valuable chain of capabilities that make citizens better able to participate productively in the regional and global economy,” Kagame said.

For the digital use in delivering government services, Kagame shared the story of Irembo, the online platform where Rwandan citizens access government services online.
“In Rwanda, we have used the Irembo platform to make many public records available online, such as land titles, birth certificates, visas, driver’s licenses, national ID, and even mountain gorilla trekking permits,” Kagame said.

“But digital systems can only function well when they are trusted,” Kagame said, advising that “Information must be protected from unauthorised access. It should be clear who owns the data that people generate and how it will be used.”

“Different digital platforms must also be able to communicate with each other seamlessly. Otherwise, we are merely rebuilding the same fragmentation in the cloud that we have been working to transcend here on the ground in the African Union,” he warned.

The meeting on Digital Transformation was, among other dignitaries, attended by Kersti Kaljulaid, the President of Estonia, whose country Kagame said “is among the most advanced in terms of e-government and digitalization.”

“Estonia is a leading country in IT and in technology generally which they have used for the development of their country, and we can have a few lessons to learn from them,” Kagame said.

Kagame also revealed the Smart Africa Alliance implementing technology-based initiatives on a regional basis has now grown to 24 member states with a total market of over 600 million people.

Gasmeth Energy Limited was represented by CEO Stephen Tierney at the signing ceremony.

Gasmeth Energy plans to finance, construct and maintain a gas extraction, processing, and compression project. The project will include a gas extraction plant on Lake Kivu, where Gasmeth Energy will extract and separate methane gas from water and thereafter transport it to an onshore plant where they will compress it. The compressed natural gas will be distributed on both the local and international market.

The over USD $400 million project aims to generate employment for between 600-800 people during the construction phase. The Gasmeth Energy project will have 400 employees after construction.

The RDB Chief Executive Officer, Clare Akamanzi, noted: “Natural gas is the most environmentally friendly fossil fuel. The natural gas produced by the plant will help reduce the use of wood and charcoal as a cooking fuel as well as diesel fuel in the automotive industry.

“The deep water of Lake Kivu contains dissolved methane and carbon dioxide. These gases pose a serious risk to all the oxygen-dependent life in the vicinity of the lake as they continue to build up. However, methane gas also provides an energy resource valued at billions of dollars for the Kivu region.

“We, therefore, welcome the Gasmeth Energy project because not only will it reduce the risk of a methane gas explosion, it will also provide jobs, reduce Rwanda’s natural gas import bill, increase gas exports and provide cleaner cooking fuel for Rwandans,” she said.

The move was announced yesterday, Sunday, in a meeting that brought together the students, ISPG administration and HEC aimed at resolving the issue of placing students in other universities to enable them to complete their studies.

The Ministry of Education last week announced a decision to definitively close two faculties of Biomedical Laboratory Sciences and Medicine and Surgery of the University of Gitwe.
It was thereupon decided that students who took medicine and surgery courses continue their courses in University of Rwanda and those taking the medical laboratory to join the Institut d’Enseignement Supérieur de Ruhengeri (INES, Kibogora Polytechnic and the Catholic University of Rwanda.

The HEC Executive Director Dr. Muvunyi Emmanuel announced that he has already consulted the universities where students will continue with their courses and they are ready to receive them in line with the set terms and conditions.

Some students were, however, pessimistic as to whether the form and content of instruction will rhyme with their background, arguing HEC to intercede for them so that their adopted universities concentrate on imparting knowledge of what they did not cover at Gitwe.

Dr. Muvunyi, however, said HEC cannot alter the way universities deliver content to students but in case any need for their intervention arises, they will always be available.
“We are not going to change the form and nature of instruction of any of the universities you are joining for they each have their own standards and academic norms, but where one needs help, we shall work with them to make everything work smoothly,” he said.

President Kagame received the EAC Summit Chairmanship as he attended the 20th Ordinary Summit of the East African Community Heads of State, in Arusha, Tanzania.
Accepting the EAC Summit Chairmanship, President Kagame assured the attendees of his commitment as the new chairperson of the EAC summit.

“It is an honor to serve as Chairperson of our Summit for the next year. I look forward to working together with my fellow leaders to serve the people of East Africa,” Kagame said.

He remarked that the summit comes at an important moment as EAC approaches it’s the 20th anniversary of its revival. “We have much to celebrate. But it is also a moment to reflect on the meaning and value of this Community which is important to all of us.”

President Kagame added that it is an opportunity to address whatever challenges exist directly and frankly, so to move confidently into the future EAC.

The summit had been postponed twice after Burundi’s last-minute boycott of the planned November meet which was rescheduled to December but failed to take place. Burundi wanted the EAC leaders to first address differences pitting his country and Rwanda. Relations between the two neighbors have soured since the failed Bujumbura coup in 2015 threatening to tear apart the Community.

With President Kagame’s assurance, the relationship between the two countries might change for the better.

“We cannot afford to fall behind particularly when the EAC was starting to make good progress. It is up to us to ensure that this community works for us as it should,” He said

President Kagame further observed that as leaders of the community, EAC needs to come together in a spirit of solidarity and unity for the benefit and well-being of the citizens of the region.

“We will measure success by how easily our people, their goods and capital move within our region & how prosperous in the end they become as a result. This is our task. I know we are equal to it if we choose to put all our energies into making it happen.” Kagame concluded.

Four of six East African Community heads of state attended the meeting. President John Magufuli was joined by his counterparts Museveni of Uganda, Kenya’s Uhuru Kenyatta and President Paul Kagame.

The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Regional Cooperation and EAC affairs Amb. Olivier Nduhungirehe wrote on his tweet that the presidents of the four member states that make the EAC; President Paul Kagame, John Pombe Magufuli, Uhuru Kenyatta, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and the vice president of Burundi Gaston Sindikubwabo have met today 1st of February 2019.

The summit which has also been attended by the EAC General Secretary Liberat Mfumukeko was twice postponed from 30th October and 27th December 2018.

Amb. Nduhungirehe said that the 20th EAC summit will involve voting the new Chairman of EAC and discuss the fast-tracking of flagship pillars of the community including; Customs Union, Common Market, Common Currency and Political Confederation.
Rwanda will take over the chairmanship of the EAC.