After ending the visit to Saudi Arabia, the Zhejiang Provincial Government delegation headed by Governor Yuan Jiajun arrived in Kigali on the evening of September 6 to begin a friendly visit to Rwanda.

On the afternoon of September 7, Yuan Jiajun met with Rwandan President Kagame and the two sides had a cordial and friendly conversation. Yuan Jiajun said that President Xi Jinping and President Kagame achieved mutual visits last year and reached a series of important consensuses on building the “Belt and Road” jointly, which injected new impetus into the traditional friendship between China and Rwanda and into the cooperation in various fields. The economic and cultural characteristics of Zhejiang and Rwanda are both unique, the friendship between the two peoples is profound, and thus the potential for cooperation in various fields is enormous. The main purpose of this visit, according to Yuan Jiajun, is to implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state at the provincial level and to promote the traditional friendship between China and Rwanda into more tangible projects and achievements by means of a series of practical measures. Zhejiang will always uphold the conception of sincerity and friendliness and the correct outlook on righteousness and interests and take this visit as an opportunity, to strengthen strategic cooperation,to promote complementary advantages, to build a number of influential cooperation platforms, to promote the practical cooperation between the two sides in the digital economy, the rural e-commerce, the equipment manufacturing, the modern agriculture, the humanities tourism, the infrastructure, the business environment, and other fields, and thus to contribute more Zhejiang power to the community with a shared future for China and Rwanda and for China and Africa.

President Kagame expressed his admiration for the ecological environment and the development achievements in Zhejiang in recent years. He expressed his hope that on the basis of the existing good cooperation and within the framework of the “Belt and Road”, new efforts would be made to opened up new areas of cooperation, and more enterprises form Zhejiang would be welcomed to Rwanda to expand investment in infrastructure construction, agriculture, manufacturing, e-commerce, tourism and other fields to help the development of the manufacturing in Rwanda and the construction of “smart cities”.

During his visit to Rwanda, Yuan Jiajun attended the China (Zhejiang)-Rwanda Digital Economy Development and Cooperation Forum and delivered a keynote speech. Yuan Jiajun pointed out that at present, the digital revolution has brought subversive changes to mankind. The digital revolution has also make the community with a shared future for China and Africa more unified. Facing the wave of digital revolution, Zhejiang is willing to work with Rwanda, to focus on digital industrialization and industrial digitalization, to comprehensively strengthen the development and cooperation of digital economy, and to promote the construction of the digital society and the digital government. It is necessary to deepen the cooperation between the two sides in eWTP, intelligent manufacturing and smart governance, to promote the rural e-commerce model such as “Taobao Village” in Zhejiang according to local conditions, and to help Rwanda to transform and upgrade traditional industries such as textile, clothing, chemicals, and equipment manufacturing with digital technology. It is necessary to strengthen cooperation in smart cities, digital government, social governance, etc., and thus to continuously promote mutual development. A total of 7 cooperation projects were signed during the forum, involving cross-border e-commerce, industrial park construction, personnel training, logistics and warehousing, agricultural products trade, and other fields.

Yuan Jiajun also visited the Achievement Exhibition on the Technological Cooperation and Capacity Building featuring Zhejiang’s aid to Rwanda, inspected the achievements made by Alibaba Group and Jinhua Vocational and Technical College in aiding Rwanda, unveiled the Zhejiang Rwanda R&D Science and Technology Cooperation Demonstration Base, and issued a certificate of completion to the trainees taking part in the Rwandan Bamboo Technical Training. Yuan Jiajun said that Zhejiang and Rwanda have a good foundation for scientific and technological cooperation. Thus it is necessary to adhere to the principle of government guidance, enterprise entities, and market operation, to take advantage of the development trend to do a good job in the personnel exchange training and in the implementation of the projects, and to concentrate on building a number of demonstration zones for cooperation and development, demonstration engineering, and demonstration projects.