President Kagame on December 22 at Village Urugwiro received a delegation of 32 students and two lecturers from the Stanford Business School with whom he shared Rwanda’s aspirations, dreams and struggles to shake off the past and step into the dawn of a better future. The students who are on a global study trip to Rwanda as part of Stanford Graduate School of Business’ Global Management Program had the opportunity to field questions to the President on a range of issues including Rwanda’s past, the economy, Vision 2010, corruption, regional integration among other issues.
The students chose to visit both Rwanda and Kenya for their global study because they are particularly interested in learning about East Africa, with an emphasis on comparing and contrasting the economic landscape and range of business opportunities in both countries and also to understand how Government and fiscal policies impact on Rwanda’s ability to compete regionally and globally.
“We know quite well that the scars of our history will not just fade away. Nonetheless, we understand that we cannot accept to be hostages of our tragic history if we have to shape a better future,” President Kagame said in reaction to a question on the effects that the country’s history may have on Rwanda’s progress.
President Kagame told the students that Rwanda’s challenges in achieving its goals are seen in the context of where the country is coming from. “We are coming from the base; we had to build everything from a scratch by mobilizing means, building capacity. When we talk of means, this poses the biggest challenge because this means aid and handouts, and most of the time all these come with repulsive conditions,” the President said.
In the course of their study in Rwanda, the students met with officials of the Rwanda Trading Company, RDB, PSF, Partners in Health supported hospital in Rwinkwavu, Crystal Ventures and Gahaya Links.