Friday, May 23, 2014
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KIGALI (Xinhua) -- The President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Donald Kaberuka has pledged more support towards achieving the total structural transformation of Africa in the next half century.He made the remarks on Thursday at the formal opening of the 49th Annual Meetings for the AfDB and the 40th meetings of its soft loan affiliate, the African Development Fund (ADF) that ends Friday in Rwandan capital Kigali.
The five-day high level event that started on Monday, brought together about 3,000 delegates representing multilateral finance institutions, development agencies, the private sector, nongovernmental organizations, civil society and the media from across Africa and beyond.
It also attracted Presidents of Uganda, Gabon, Mauritania and former leaders of Tanzania, Nigeria and South Africa, Benjamin Mkapa, Olesegun Obasanjo and Thabo Mbeki respectively.
Kenya’s Deputy President William Ruto and African Union (AU) Chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma also attended the meeting.
“Our intention is not to rehash old problems but to bridge the gap between solutions we know. AfDB is committed to remain close towards transformation and reconstruction of Africa to achieve growth,” Kaberuka emphasized.
He hailed Rwanda for achieving unprecedented transformation within a short period of time saying that the story of Rwanda’s transformation is an inspiration to other war torn countries like South Sudan, Somalia and Central African Republic.
AfDB President noted that AfDB has been a reliable partner in the transformation of Rwanda; the Bank recently has approved 76 million U.S. dollars to promote skills development in the small East African country.
The African Development Bank has supported Rwanda since 1974, and been central to Rwanda’s economic recovery. The Bank’s interventions in infrastructure, agriculture and rural development, and human capital development have contributed to our structural transformation efforts.
With total commitment of close to 400 million dollars, the Bank’ s support is aligned with Rwanda’s Vision 2020 that aims to get Rwanda to a middle income economy by 2020.
This year’s meetings that ran from Monday to Friday at the Kigali-Serena Annual Meetings Village, the Small East African state gave an opportunity to participants to chart the way forward for inclusive growth and sustainable Africa continent.
It is held under the theme “The next 50 Years: The Africa we want”. And it’s a platform where key decisions about the Bank Group are made each year.
The conference is also attended by Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors from the Bank’s 54 regional member countries (RMCs).