The agreements were signed during the first session of Joint Permanent Commission (JPC) that took place in Rubavu District on Saturday.
The ceremony was led by Minister of Foreign Affairs and East African Community Affairs, Louise Mushikiwaho and her Bénin counterpart Aurélien Agbénonci.
The commission is part of the resolution from Mushikiwabo’s visit to Bénin in February this year.
The commission will help to observe opportunities that both countries could cooperate in.
Both parties also discussed the implementation of resolutions signed including air freights, visa-free movements and cooperation through RwandAir.
The customer service week celebrations in Rwanda are therefore very significant in supporting and improving service delivery in the country.
During this week Rwanda Development Board shall continue to encourage public and private sector institutions to provide quality services to their customers for long-term sustainability of their businesses.
In the same vein, RDB plans to also support institutions in examining challenges in service delivery from high-level executives to subordinates within an organization, and inspiring a culture of continuous improvement on measures to undertake in competitively positioning service delivery in the country.
The customer service week celebration shall be conducted through a national campaign in Rwanda under the ‘NaYombi’ programme that was designed to promote a culture of quality services in the country.
Ten winners shall be selected out of all the online nominations and honored with a certificate as well as Tembera U Rwanda package to promote domestic tourism.
Rwanda Development Board officials said that, “Customer service week is very important week for us as it provides a platform where we demonstrate our national commitment in attaining international standards in service delivery.”
This year marks the fifth time that the NaYombi campaign will be actively driving the annual celebration of the world customer service week in the country and underlining the Government of Rwanda’s commitment in upgrading quality customer care amongst all the cross cutting sectors in the country.
“We continue to raise corporate awareness on customer service and customer satisfaction because proper customer service is a must have for any business success,” RDB officials said
All in all, Rwanda’s progress in customer delivery has been progressive over the years. The recently released World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness report 2017-2018 reveals that Rwanda is now ranked second in Africa on customer orientation. Under the 6th pillar on goods market efficiency in the report, Rwanda is currently ranked position 41 globally with a score of 5.0 out of 7 in achieving global best practices towards customer care.
The order being implemented by City of Kigali and districts in partnership with security forces, concerns properties which were developed in the wetlands after the ban on settling in wetlands in 2005 while those which settled before will be evicted later as the government finds the budget for expropriation, according to Remy Norbert Duhuze, Director of Environmental Regulation and Pollution Control at REMA.
The deadline for relocation expired a fortnight ago when a team of officials from REMA, City of Kigali and security personnel closed down businesses in the wetland between the sectors of Kacyiru and Gisozi in Gasabo District. But Duhuze said the exercise continues to forcefully relocate all from 7,700 hectares of wetlands in Kigali and later reach out to all other parts of the country.
“We have started in the city because, unlike in rural areas where farms absorb a good quantity of water, concrete works due to many constructions in the city do not allow water seepage to the soils and almost all the rain-storm water flows to the wetlands which help in flood water control and replenishing underground water. They also constitute biological diversity reservoirs,” Duhuze told IGIHE on Friday.
He said that after the expiry of seven days, some people were granted a period ranging from one month to one year after presenting their relocation plans.
“Government had always told property owners to relocate but people ignored the order. We want to restore wetlands that have been laid to waste. Some will serve as beautification landscapes of the city. We are now targeting properties without settlement permits,” he said.
Tenants in residential houses have also been given 15 days expiring on October 5, 2017 but some plead with the government for time extension so that they find other houses away from wetlands.
A mother of two children who preferred anonymity said she found it hard to get means for renting another house within 15 days because house owners require rent fee of three months for a tenant to enter the house, adding that she is unsure of her future after the expiry of deadline. She is a widow and has been paying a rent of Rwf13,000 in Gisozi Sector, Musezero Cell, Amarembo Village.
Godlev Mukagasana, an elderly woman who owns a house in the area, said she is worried of her future in case she is evicted without compensation so that she can buy land and build another house somewhere else.
“I sold my land plot upcountry and bought this plot and built this small house five years ago. I am not sure if I will be compensated because I do not have settlement permits. I am likely to become a wanderer on the streets because I do not have means to pay rent,” she said.
Rwanda’s wetlands represent about 14.9% of the national territory, including 6.3% for marshes and 8.6% for lakes, rivers and permanent or seasonal fresh water pools.
The British High Commission in Rwanda through the twitter account, congratulated Cotton for the medal.
“Congratulations to Professor Phillip Cotton of University of Rwanda on receiving his OBE from William Gelling for service to education in Rwanda” twit reads.
The medal is an appreciation offered by Queen Elizabeth II to honour every individual who plays important role in the development of the country he serves, through different sectors like economy, humanitarian activities or in government positions.
OBE is among five medals of honour awarded by Queen Elizabeth II.
Phillip Cotton (L) receives a medal from William Gelling
In order to continue advancing the important work of this subsidiary organ of the UNWTO General Assembly, the mandate of the outgoing members of the World Committee on Tourism Ethics was renewed until 2021, with Pascal Lamy continuing to chair the Committee.
Joining the four Members whose mandate was set to end in 2019 – Yoshiaki Hompo (Japan), Fiona Jeffery (UK), Tanja Mihalic (Slovenia) and Eugenio Yunis (Chile) – will be Gede Ardika (Indonesia), Jean Marc Mignon (International Social Tourism Organization) and Ron Oswald (The International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations) as Committee Members, and Hiran Cooray (Sri Lanka), Suzy Hatough (Jordan) and Günnur Diker (Turkey) as Alternates.
The only new member joining the World Committee on Tourism Ethics for a four-year term starting 17th of September this year is Rosette Chantal Rugamba, Founder and Managing Director of Songa Africa and Amakoro Lodge in Rwanda.
By Prof. Dr. Wolfgang H. Thome
All five EAC countries’ prosecutor generals are in Kigali for a yearly meeting where
Mutangana reminded them that Rwanda still has a problem of Genocide suspects still at large, many of who are in the EAC countries.
“They are many suspects especially in Uganda and Kenya. These countries differ from European countries that have every individual’s identity on their land, it is easy to be tracked and arrested from there. But in our region, a person moves from one country to another without travel documents,” he said.
According to Mutangana, the meeting is an opportunity to remind and request the top justice officials in EAC to extradite genocide suspects and face justice.
“We remind them to extradite the suspects t o Rwanda or prosecute them in the host countries. After this meeting, we hope that something will be done, it might be not done today or tomorrow, but something will have to be done,” he said.
The vice-prosecutor general in Tanzania, Ayub Mwenda said that his country is ready to arrest any suspected perpetrator.
“We usually extradite suspects to face justice in their countries or we take them to our courts,” he said.
The Rwanda’s prosecution has sent 600 arrest warrants for the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi suspects in 32 countries from Africa, Europe, North-America, Canada and New Zealand.
Speaking during the conference, the REMA Director General, Eng. Collette Ruhamya said that poor waste management causes pollution in all environmental spheres including solid contamination and pollution in water bodies among others.
“If we continue with improper management of wastes, how shall we have cities that support human settlement?” she challenged engineers.
“If we continue to burn our waste in open air, how are we going to combat climate change?” she said adding that countries need to manage wastes in an integrated manner and adopt the practices of reduce, reuse, recycle and recover practices.
“Engineers must advise their clients on green designing because they understand the benefits of going for sustainable and green designs” she said.
“In Rwanda, we have encouraged the recycling of different wastes. For example we have metal,plastic and e-waste recycling plants” she said.
She said that Rwanda’s e-waste recycling company is funded by Rwanda Green Fund and that the government is in the process of establishing a waste-to-charcoal plant.
Ruhamya appreciated Kenya’move to ban the use of plastic bags and called upon other countries to follow suit.
“Rwanda banned plastic bags use. I thank Kenya for picking the same practice and pray that other countries also borrow the same lesson.” she said.
Mutangana was elected yesterday during the 6th annual general meeting of EAAP members.
The four-day meeting brought together top prosecutors from Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Rwanda
In the meeting, Biswalo Mganga from Tanzania was elected the vice-president and Mike Chibita from Uganda the Secretary General.
Also Rwandan Claudine Dushimimana has been elected on the executive committee of EAAP.
Mutangana has 18 years of experience in prosecution. He had been a prosecutor in former Cyangugu, Umutara and City of Kigali Prefectures. He holds a Master’s degree in Criminal Law and Criminology from Groningen University in Netherlands.
Namibian MPs appreciated the Rwanda Governance Board (RGB) as an institution that the government has established to regulate governance and ensure population’s evaluation towards their leaders (citizen report card).
Speaking to the media, the head of delegation, MP Hilma N.Nicanorsaid that they chose to visit Rwanda as an exemplary countrythat has high number of women in decision making positionsin the World.
“For Namibia, in our efforts we are trying to have good number of women in decision making and in the private sector,so we are learningRwanda’s best experiences which we can take back home to improve from where we are.As we speak now, Namibia has got a percentage of 46% in parliamentary house” she said
Nicanor said that the visit has been very fruitful as they learnthow Rwanda has been successful in attaining women presentation in parliament through having registered laws addressing the whole issue of empowerment of women and resulted in bringing many women in decision making positions.
“Our impression in terms of governance is that we still have some good examples to learn. Despite having lots to learn inpolicies or strategies, we also have to take into consideration the importance of monitoring and evaluation in order to ensure that these laws and policies are being compliant”
The RGB Chief Executive Officer Professor Anastase Shyaka said that the team visited RGB to understand the politics and governance innovations of the country and more particularly to understand and how Rwanda is mainstreaming gender equality in its governance structure and systems.
“They came to RGB to get sense of what we do as a governance board and to get sense of how home grown solutions have impacted transformation in Rwanda. They also want to understand how RGB is monitoring and evaluating the delivery of public institutions and more importantly how we are implementing strategic plansby following up the implementation of homegrown solutions” he said.
Namibian MPs started their visit in Rwanda on Monday and they will wind up on Friday.
China has remained a valuable partner for Rwanda over the past four decades in several sectors, especially infrastructure, Uzziel Ndagijimana told a reception here celebrating the 68th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, which falls on Sunday.
Trade relations between the two countries have also shown significant progress, said Ndagijimana.
“As Rwanda continues to work towards building the manufacturing sector, we look forward to welcoming more Chinese companies to invest in that area,” said Ndagijimana, adding that Rwanda is also looking forward to promoting people-to-people relations with China.
Since President Paul Kagame’s successful visit to China in March, the China-Rwanda relations have embarked on a fast track, said Rao Hongwei, Chinese ambassador to Rwanda.
The governments and people of the two countries will further strengthen cooperation to achieve win-win results and inclusive progress, said the ambassador.
About 350 people attended the reception which was held at the Chinese Embassy in Rwanda.
