Korea Offers to Extend IT Expertise to Rwanda

Korea Offers to Extend IT Expertise to Rwanda

Written by T_Korea

Saturday, 31 May 2008

President Lee Myung-bak and visiting Rwandan President Paul Kagame on Saturday agreed to strengthen economic and industrial cooperation between Korea and the African nation during their summit talks in Seoul. "Lee held talks and a luncheon with Kagame, the first Rwandan president to visit Korea since the establishment of bilateral diplomatic ties in 1963, for discussions on improving bilateral economic cooperation and transferring Korea's expertise in economic development," the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said in a press release. Rwanda is a small landlocked country in the Great Lakes region of east-central Africa, bordered by Uganda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania. Home to approximately 10.1 million people, Rwanda supports the densest population in continental Africa, with most of the population engaged in subsistence agriculture. "At the talks, Lee praised Kagame for stabilizing Rwanda after overcoming the 1994 genocide and expressed an intention to have Korean enterprises participate in the African country's economic development and infrastructure construction," said the press release. Lee pledged to actively transfer Korea's experience and technologies in advanced telecommunications to Rwanda to support its drive to foster a knowledge-based economy. He also vowed to steadily support Rwanda and other African countries through the Korean government's "Africa Initiative" calling for extension of hefty grants and soft loans and expansion of economic, medical and educational support. In response, Kagame asked Lee to extend active support for Rwanda's ambitious drive to build an IT-based economy and help increase Korea's imports of Rwandan coffee. YonhapNewsAgency

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