Seoul, 2 December 2011
President Kagame today wound up his three-day working visit to South Korea by visiting Samsung Electronics plant and the Korean Internet and Security Agency (KISA).
On his visit to Samsung electronics, a global multinational electronics and information technology company headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, President Kagame was conducted to a guided tour of the different departments of the firm and given a presentation of the company’s range of products.
Partick Nyirishema, Head of RDB- IT, who was part of President Kagame’s entourage, pointed out that the visits to Samsung and KISA are very strategic for Rwanda, an aspiring ICT hub in the region:
“To have Samsung as a partner would be strategic because they have very high levels of expertise and competence. We are looking at partnering in the area of skills development, to help us build skills in certain areas we have discussed. We will continue to discuss the details on how they will help us as a country, to build skills in electronics as well as software applications development. There are some tangible things that they are going to help us do that are very instrumental for ICT development in Rwanda.”
Later in the day, President Kagame toured the Korean Internet and Security headquarters. KISA is a government agency established in 2009 to focus on the national Korean information security, national internet development and international cooperation in the area of ICT and broadcasting.
Patrick Nyirishema pointed out that country cannot invest in the use of the internet if security in ICT cannot be ensured as this would result in loss of trust and credibility:
“KISA is indeed a strategic partner, and they are going to be helping us to build cyber security capability so that as we strive to fast track out technological capabilities in ICT, we do that with security in mind and putting the right measure in place. We are going to be partnering with them to put the right measures in place and build our own capacity for cyber security.”