Alibaba Conducts Workshop for Rwandan Government Officials on Enabling a Digital Economy

This week, delegates from the government of Rwanda completed the first New Economy Workshop held at Alibaba Group’s headquarters in Hangzhou. During the four-day workshop, twelve government leaders met with Alibaba executives across multiple businesses to learn about the transformative impact and promise of a new digital economy as well as how to drive economic growth by accelerating digital finance, logistics, e-commerce and big data industries.

The
New Economy Workshop program aims to empower participants to use their
knowledge to continue supporting the development of Rwanda’s digital economy.
Participants included the CEO of Rwanda’s National Agricultural Export Development
Board (NAEB), the Rwandan Ambassador to China and representatives from the
Ministry of Trade and Industry (MINICOM), Higher Education Council (HEC),
Rwanda Utility Regulatory Authority (RURA), Rwanda Information Society
Authority (RISA), Rwanda Development Board (RDB), Rwanda Energy Group (REG),
and the Ministry of ICT & Innovation (MINICT).

The
workshop follows the launch of the first African eWTP
(electronic world trade platform) hub
in Rwanda witnessed by President Kagame and Alibaba Group Executive Chairman Jack Ma last
October. Under the eWTP agreement, the government of Rwanda and Alibaba
committed to work together to strengthen the country’s economic development by
promoting policy innovation and providing capacity building to empower the
growth of Rwanda’s digital economy.

“At
Alibaba we have seen first-hand the transformative impact digital technology
can have in building an inclusive society. This New Economy Workshop is meant
to not only provide capacity building to Rwanda’s policy makers, but also to
inspire them to become advocates for Rwanda’s digital transformation and for
the country’s technology entrepreneurs,” said Angel Zhao, President of
Alibaba’s Globalization Leadership Group.

“The
Alibaba ecosystem has enabled millions of people to participate in the global
economy and improve their standard of living through the use of technology,”
said George William Kayonga, Chief Executive Officer, National Agricultural
Export Development Board (NAEB). “I see great opportunity for Rwanda to similarly
build a digital economy allowing us to move rapidly up the learning curve using
the Alibaba experience as our guide.”

This
week’s New Economy training is the latest example of Alibaba’s ongoing
commitment to support Rwanda’s economic development:

• In
  October 2018, the first African eWTP
  (electronic world trade platform) hub was launched in Rwanda. Through this
  partnership, Rwanda and Alibaba work together to enable cross-border trade of
  Rwandan products to Chinese consumers and facilitate China outbound tourism to
  Rwanda.

• In
  August 2018, fifty lecturers from Rwanda’s top universities attended the first Global E-commerce Talent (GET) Program organized in
  partnership with the Ministry of Education’s Higher Education Council and the Rwandan
  Development Board. GET is a five-day course to boost the competencies of
  Rwandan university teachers and deepen their understanding of the e-commerce
  industry, so they can train future entrepreneurs.

• In
  partnership with UNCTAD, Alibaba Business School is training 1,000
  entrepreneurs from emerging markets over five years. Two hundred of those
  entrepreneurs will come from Africa. Five Rwandan entrepreneurs have already
  graduated from the eFounders Fellowship program.

• As part of eWTP collaboration, Alibaba Business School will host the first Alibaba Netpreneur Training program from March 2-13, 2019 for approximately 40 entrepreneurs contributing to digital transformation, who are currently operating in the Rwandan market, or are in the process of expanding to the Rwandan market. Applications are open until January 20, 2019.

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