H.E Paul Kagame with the Senate President Vincent Biruta and Speaker of the Parliament Rose Mukantabana at the National Dialogue Conference yesterday.



PARLIAMENT - President Paul Kagame yesterday morning emphatically urged Rwandans and country leaders to focus on how the nation’s development can be fast-tracked.
He said this at Parliament buildings in Kimihurura while opening the Sixth National Dialogue Conference, a two-day event that brings together Rwandans, especially those in leadership positions, to discuss and share ideas on national issues, in particular how to solve current national problems.
Kagame stressed that he could not fail to remind the packed plenary room about the conference’s worth, and what is expected from it, in line with the aim of advancing the country.
“The country’s development is of paramount importance however much people might be different,” Kagame said, while underlining the importance of the meeting as a reminder to Rwandans of their common goal.
“What unites Rwandans and how they should fuse strengths to attain their common goal – the country’s development – should be the discussions’ outcome,” he pointed out, suggesting that differences such as in political ideology should not discourage efforts in that direction.
“We all want development however much our differences,” he said, giving the wider African continent as an example.
“With all its different countries, cultures and many other differences like religion, all of Africa wants development,” said the President.
While discussing issues, President Kagame emphasised that participants should come back to the central question – how can we speed up development?
He, however, also returned to one troubling thing, of which if a remedy was found fast, would be very beneficial – the continuous dependency on foreign aid.
“We should discuss and go back to this issue in all our deliberations,” he said, putting questions to the assembly – “How will we, how will Rwandans fare when this aid given to us by others stops coming?”[more]http://www.newtimes.co.rw/index.php?issue=13749&article=11851