Wednesday, October 31, 2018 President Kagame and Alibaba group founder, Jack Ma are in partnership in promoting the country as a top tourism destination in Kigali. The event was about to launch Electronic World Trade Platform Ewtp Africa.
President Kagame equally urged Rwandan entrepreneurs is calling all entrepreneurs to take advantage of the platforms offered by Alibaba to expand their trade.
This platform will be opening doors for small businesses in Africa to take part in cross-border electronic trade. Under the agreements, Alibaba will also provide capacity building to academics, policymakers and entrepreneurs on how to grow a digital economy.
PRESIDENT Kagame asked young entrepreneur to rise and take advantage on Alibaba’s eWTP as it will facilitate them to transact business with the rest of the World.
The intention of the agreement is to strengthen cooperation in support of Rwanda’s economic development by promoting policy innovation, enabling cross-border trade of Rwandan products to Chinese consumers, facilitating tourism to Rwanda, and providing capacity building to empower the growth of Rwanda’s digital economy.
“Rwandan producers will be able to sell directly to a much larger set of customers,” he said, explaining that it will improve both productivity and profitability for Rwandan traders.
He added: “I want to challenge Rwandan companies and young people, men and women, to take full advantage of this technology”.
Rwanda becomes the first country in Africa to establish an eWTP partnership and the goal is to spread it across the continent.
“I am pleased that Rwanda is the first eWTP partner in Africa, and I look forward to the development of an innovative digital economy here,” Ma said, expressing excitement and thanking Rwanda for piloting the project on the continent.
RDB’s Chief Executive Officer, Clare Akamanzi, said that the partnership between Rwanda and Alibaba will change people’s lives for the better and that the Rwandan government will continue to leverage the digital economy to support the country’s exporters, local producers, and artisans.
“We have already seen tremendous attention from Chinese consumers on Alibaba’s platforms in high-quality Rwandan products such as our top-tier single estate coffee, and are confident that local products and travel experiences will continue to receive interest and support from the more than half a billion consumers on Alibaba’s platforms,” she said.
Alibaba Group is a Chinese multinational conglomerate specializing in e-commerce, retail, Internet, Artificial Intelligence and technology.
With the company reporting revenues of US$39.9 billion for the last fiscal, Alibaba Group Holding remains the world’s largest e-commerce platform operator.
Alibaba said that he chose Rwanda as it is the first country in Africa.
The Express News
