By David Himbara
On September 30, 2022, Rwandan strongman General Paul Kagame was in Singapore to launch a Singapore-Rwanda partnership. But what happened to the Singapore-Rwanda Singapore partnership launched by Kagame in Singapore on May 21, 2008? That was when Kagame was in Singapore to witness the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that was to provide a high-level framework for public sector capacity-building in Rwanda. The MOU was a a follow-up of the Service Agreement signed in July 2007 to conduct needs assessment studies in view of providing advisory services in the following seven priority areas in Rwanda:
- 1) Workforce Development;
- 2) Public Sector Capacity-Building;
- 3) Civil Aviation;
- 4) Social Security Fund Reform;
- 5) Urban Planning;
- 6) Investment Promotion; and
- 7) Info-Communications Technology (ICT) Planning.
The needs assessment was completed in 2008. Singapore Cooperation Enterprise (SCE) became the lead government agency. Other Singaporean entities such as the Civil Service College, Changi Airports International and Surbana) were brought on board to provide the relevant expertise to work with the Rwanda authorities in the above mentioned areas of interest.
So what happened? It appears that the Kagame regime forgot what it had signed with Singapore some 14 years ago. Back to the drawing board. Stay tuned.
