Rwanda deepens ties with Netherlands, more focus on public-private partnerships

Rwanda is seeking to boost its bilateral relationship with Netherlands giving special focus on public private partnerships.

This was observed during an event to celebrate the 52^nd birthday of King Willem-Alexander Claus George Ferdinand of The Netherlands on Wednesday evening in Rwanda's capital, Kigali.

The Dutch Ambassador to Rwanda, Frédérique de Man, announced that even though the embassy will be phasing out their bilateral development programme in Rwanda by 2022, the embassy will not be closing as it looks forward to other public-private partnerships in various sectors, as reported by The New Times.

"Over the past few months, we have been discussing and have been working on exciting new initiatives, like investigating whether we can assist in setting up a Rwanda Innovative Finance Facility for Water (RIFFWA) which will assist in identifying bankable projects in the water sector and we are using specific Dutch finance instruments to have public-private partnerships in various sectors.

"We are working hard to complete our bilateral development programme by handing over to the Rwandan Government and institutions, the replicable and sustainable models such as in landscape restoration," she said.

Over the last couple of years, Netherlands has been supporting Rwanda in varied sectors like agriculture, horticulture, integrated water resource management, the justice sector and civil society with the presence of several Dutch companies (specialized in the food industry, transport, renewable energy construction, and ICT) present in the East African country.

"Dutch values of justice, education and self-determination have been reflected in the consistent partnership of the Kingdom of Netherlands with Rwanda especially after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi" she added, New Times noted.

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