Diaspora convention on development opens

Rwandan expatriates have a "a crucial role" to play in the nation's development and can do so without returning home permanently, President Paul Kagame told delegates at the country's first Diaspora Global Convention. Officially opening the five-day meeting on Thursday in Kigali, he told some 300 delegates that they could act as consultants and investors in the nation, and urged them to seek solutions to the country's woes, the Rwanda News Agency reported. Up for discussion are the issues of trade and investment in Rwanda; globalisation; economic growth and development; the diaspora and national development; Rwanda's economic and political relationships with its neighbours. Other agenda items include Rwandan military involvement in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; other security issues in the Great Lakes region; good governance, constitutional rule, and human rights; unity reconciliation and reconstruction; technology and human resource capacity. Rwanda is making an effort to rebuild after the 1994 genocide that left the country without schools, hospital, factories and functioning government departments. The country has also recently undertaken another effort to eradicate poverty among its 7.3 million people. The convention was organised by the Rwanda Southern Africa Alliance in collaboration with the Rwanda Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Rwandan embassy in South Africa.