Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09KIGALI570
2009-09-11 14:00:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Kigali
Cable title:  

CODEL MEEKS VISIT FOCUSES ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Tags:  OREP ECON ETRD EFIN EAID PGOV PREL RW 
pdf how-to read a cable
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P 111400Z SEP 09
FM AMEMBASSY KIGALI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6296
INFO RUEHXR/RWANDA COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHXR/RWANDA COLLECTIVE
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0277
RUFOADA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK
RHMFISS/HQ USAFRICOM STUTTGART GE
RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE
RUEHLMC/MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE CORP 0072
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KIGALI 000570 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/08/2019
TAGS: OREP ECON ETRD EFIN EAID PGOV PREL RW
SUBJECT: CODEL MEEKS VISIT FOCUSES ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

REF: A. KIGALI 552 B. KIGALI 558

KIGALI 00000570 001.2 OF 002


Classified By: Ambassador W. Stuart Symington, for Reasons 1.4 (b) and
(d)

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KIGALI 000570

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/08/2019
TAGS: OREP ECON ETRD EFIN EAID PGOV PREL RW
SUBJECT: CODEL MEEKS VISIT FOCUSES ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

REF: A. KIGALI 552 B. KIGALI 558

KIGALI 00000570 001.2 OF 002


Classified By: Ambassador W. Stuart Symington, for Reasons 1.4 (b) and
(d)


1. (U) SUMMARY: A Congressional delegation led by Rep.
Gregory Meeks (NY),who chairs the House Financial Services
Committee's Sub-committee on International Monetary Policy
and Trade, and including subcommittee members Representatives
Melvin Watt (NC),Sheila Jackson Lee (TX),Jack Kingston (GA)
and Marcia Fudge (OH) visited Rwanda August 31 - September 2.
During their stay, the CODEL met with Rwanda's president and
finance minister, other private- and public-sector leaders
involved in economic development and business in Rwanda, and
viewed key assistance projects that had received USG or
International Financial Institution (IFI) funding. END
SUMMARY.

Kagame Optimistic on Rwanda's Development, Regional Relations
-------------- --------------

2. (C) In a September 2 meeting with the CODEL, Rwandan
president Paul Kagame highlighted the improving lot of the
ordinary Rwandan citizen while stressing the need to increase
human resource capacity and go beyond what Rwanda has already
done in agriculture, education and health--using ICT to
undergird and reinforce all areas. He also focused on
enhancing regional stability and prosperity, especially with
the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC),noting that
Rwanda could not do well if its neighbors did not also
prosper.


3. (C) President Kagame thanked the delegation for spending
time in Rwanda so they could get to know the country
firsthand. He began by recounting the story of a poor
village widow who leveraged her government-provided cow into
a profitable milk-selling business, transformed the milk
profits into a motorcycle taxi business, and would soon
purchase a car. Her dream, she told Kagame, was to see
Rwanda's airport. Kagame added that she would have a chance
to do that and may even get to fly. (Comment: This story,

easily true, was his metaphor for the transformation of the
Rwandan countryside that the GOR seeks to achieve and
reflects his conviction that, with limited support and
inculcation of a culture of self-sufficiency, Rwandans will
prosper. End Comment.)


4. (C) In response to a query about the role of the African
Development Bank (ADB),Kagame--noting appreciatively that
the current ADB president is a former Government of Rwanda
(GOR) Minister of Finance--praised the Bank as very good for
the region. He added that, in his "personal opinion," it
would be better to have more assistance funds for Africa
coordinated through the ADB, rather than by many IFIs.
Responding to a question about Rwanda's low voting
coincidence with the U.S. on key votes in the UN, he
professed unfamiliarity with the statistics but described
Rwanda's past support for USG positions on the International
Criminal Court, on trade issues "even when it put us in
conflict with other African countries," and on Iraq. On the
latter, he explained his own refusal to support an "African
consensus" against the Iraq war at a meeting in Paris
convened by then-president of France Jacques Chirac. Kagame
said such a "consensus" could only have been appropriately
developed in Africa and that the Iraq issue had (wrongly)
become a French-led attempt to conduct a general referendum
Qbecome a French-led attempt to conduct a general referendum
against the United States. He added with a flourish that
French accusations of the U.S. "going it alone" in Iraq were
especially hypocritical given France's "unilateral
intervention, on the wrong side" in Rwanda in 1994.


5. (C) Regarding the situation in Eastern Congo, Kagame
asserted that the "communication and understanding" he
developed with Congolese president Joseph Kabila, through
conversations since 2002, has made the "small groups of
dispersed FDLR" currently in Eastern Congo a much less
significant threat. (Note: The FDLR is an armed, rebel
Rwandan group operating in Eastern DRC that has been the
target of combined Rwandan-Congolese and Congolese-UN
military operations this year. End Note.) He described
positively a recently-announced joint Rwandan-Congolese
venture to exploit methane gas in Lake Kivu--an energy
program that promises long-term, clean energy for both Rwanda
and the region. On health care, Kagame said that
approximately twenty percent of the Government of Rwanda's
(GOR) budget currently goes toward health care. The Rwandan
system is universal, covering some 85% of the population,

KIGALI 00000570 002.2 OF 002


but, he noted, it is not free: people pay a small fee so
they understand the value of health care and do not develop a
sense of dependency. As the economy expands, Kagame
continued, the mechanisms put in place now will serve
Rwandans in the future with people paying more and the GOR's
burden decreasing.


Finance Minister Touts Rwanda's Success and Prospects
-------------- --------------

6. (C) During a September 1 meeting with the CODEL, Finance
Minister James Musoni underscored the difficult situation
Rwanda faced following the 1994 genocide and civil war, and
then described at length the GOR's overall "Vision 2020"
development strategy, as adopted in 2000 and modified in

2005. The GOR's current plan, he explained, focused on
achieving export-led economic growth, reducing poverty among
the most vulnerable members of society, and continuing to
expand good governance. Rwanda, he continued, sought to take
advantage of its "strategic location" as a "gateway" to
neighboring countries and become a logistical and financial
hub for businesses operating in the region. In order to
match that vision, Rwanda had joined and was acting to
strengthen the East African Community (EAC). It planned to
build with its partners a railway link to Tanzania and a
large new airport with greater cargo-handling capacity. The
GOR was also focusing on education in order to develop its
relatively unskilled labor force. Regarding relations with
donors, Musoni said the GOR was generally "happy, especially
with the U.S.," although it was still waiting for Sweden and
the Netherlands to resume direct budget support, "as
promised." (Note: Sweden and the Netherlands suspended
their aid following allegations in late 2008 by a UN panel
that the GOR had been supporting armed groups in the DRC.
Since that time the GOR moved to curb the influence of the
key Kinyarwanda-speaking armed group in the DRC, arresting
its leader, and Rwanda advocated forcefully for the
integration into the Congolese army of armed groups other
than the FDLR. End Note.) Concluding his remarks, Musoni
said Rwanda was pleased to have qualified in 2008 for a
Millenium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Threshold Program, and
he declared that Rwanda thought all conditions had been met
to move to a Compact.


Development Assistance / Economic Growth Activities
-------------- --------------

7. (U) During their visit, the CODEL met with Rwanda
Development Board (RDB) senior officials, who touched on many
of the same points made by Kagame and Musoni. (Note: RDB is
the GOR entity established to improve Rwanda's business
climate that helped engineer the reforms that vaulted Rwanda
over 75 other countries in the World Bank's "Doing Business"
rankings announced this week, per Ref A. End Note.)
U.S.-based export consultancy On the Frontier (OTF) briefed
CODEL members on its activities to encourage private
enterprise in key sectors such as tourism and coffee. The
delegation also interacted with Rwandan clients of Urwego
Opportunity Bank, an affiliate of U.S.-based Opportunity
International, specializing in micro-lending. They conducted
site visits to poverty-reduction and infrastructure programs
funded by the African Development Bank, as well as to the
main teaching hospital in Kigali, which receives USG support
Qmain teaching hospital in Kigali, which receives USG support
via PEPFAR. In addition, they met with U.S. investors
operating in Rwanda (Ref B) and visited the local enterprise
Gahaya Links, which currently exports high-end handicrafts to
the U.S., and Utexrwa, a textile firm that is taking
advantage of AGOA. Finally, accompanied by a senior Rwandan
parliamentarian, the delegation laid a wreath at the Gisozi
genocide memorial/mass grave.


8. (U) There was ample and favorable local press coverage of
the CODEL, including television airtime and three different
articles in the pro-government daily "New Times."


9. (U) CODEL Meeks did not have the opportunity to clear this
cable before departing Rwanda.
SYMINGTON