With the African Edition of the World Economic Forum (WEF) scheduled to be held in May fast approaching, a team of officials from the organisation were in the country during the course of last week to follow up on the country’s readiness. 

The forum is expected to bring together African leaders, business community and partners in development who will look at various issues including economic development, innovation and trade among others.

The New Times’ Collins Mwai caught up with Oliver Cann, the director of Media Relations at WEF, who was part of the trip for insights into Rwanda’s preparedness and some of the features of the forum.

Below are the excerpts:

You are here to establish Rwanda’s readiness to host the forum in May, how is the country fairing so far?

We were here to see how preparation plans are proceeding and checking with our partners with the Rwandan Government. They need to know, what we are doing in readiness for the forum and how we are doing it.

We were also here to check on the site and discuss a lot of logistics and content matters. This is going to be a big meeting, it is going to be our 26th meeting in Africa and there is always a lot to discuss.

So far, most plans are well ahead of schedule which is good. The venue, Camp Kigali, is great and is coming along really well in terms of preparation. We will be making a little changes such as building some structures to make sure it looks like one of our global events but it will however, have a local feel.

We are impressed by the preparedness of our local organising partners in government and in the Rwanda Development Board. This is not the first major meeting that Rwanda is hosting.

They have learnt a lot in previous meetings held here and have a lot of experience from previous summits and meetings.

Hosting such forums and meetings is becoming an area of expertise for them. It is a real indicator of the velocity of travel and the direction in which Rwanda is developing and becoming capable of hosting major events.

We know that the African Union summit is coming up soon as well and we are looking at how we can learn and create an environment which is capable of hosting even bigger meetings.

The AU Summit in terms of numbers is an even bigger meeting but challenges in accommodation are being worked through. But so far, infrastructure on the ground is excellent and compared to other meetings held in Africa, the preparedness at this stage is very favourable.

What was on your checklist when picking Rwanda as a host for the forum?

It seemed like a very natural choice, we have been in Africa for 25 years, this will be our 26th meeting but only recently have we started hosting meetings outside southern Africa. We have been in Tanzania, Ethiopia and Nigeria previously.

It is a good time to be in Rwanda, the development is strong, it is one of the fastest growing economies. It does very well according to a number of benchmarking including our own and the World Bank doing business report.

The country also fairs well in global competitiveness and has been ranked well be various reports and indexes including our own. We believe that the Rwandan economy is one of the most competitive in the region.

It also fairs well in gender gap reports making it one of the best places to be a woman in the world not just in Africa. The infrastructure is in place, the policies are in place

There also seems to be a benign environment for entrepreneurs and innovation which is also going to be one of the key focus during the meeting to see how it can be the growth driver of the African economy.

By previous experience, what are the perks for a country hosting the forum?

This is an African meeting, you have eyes from all over the continent, it is not without pressure. Rwanda has got to put on a good show because the eyes of the region and the world are watching. There will be leaders and heads of state not just from Africa but from Asia, Latin America and possibly Europe.

There is a pressure component of it; you have to be ready for it. The upside of this is that when the eyes of the world are on you and you do a good job, it is a good endorsement for your country.

I can tell you that a lot of people are excited about coming to Kigali because of the recent interest in Africa. In the news economic growth stories have been dominated by Nigeria and South Africa and I think the narrative is being challenged by the rising tide of growth in Africa.

There is a lot of work that has to be done to get that work out there; Rwanda is a good place to reinforce that narrative. Having the eyes of the world and enabling people to see initiatives such as the Kigali innovation centre or the other initiatives and aspects such as good governance, how to run a county and create an enabling environment for entrepreneurs.

All these should help Africans participating and help Rwandans as well as the very many investors looking to do business here.

Rwanda is part of the East African Community integration initiative that aims to attract investments and business as a bloc. Will the forum in any way help advance the agenda?

A lot of good work has been done as a large section of people are aware that East Africa represents the most exciting prospects in the African region at the moment. The present story is a good one, but more things can be done.

There are still corporations that are not present in this part of the world that may be present elsewhere. There are investors who do not understand dynamics of the East African region and that the underlying fundamentals for Africa and East Africa are strong and will grow stronger.

The pressure of diversifying away from commodities and energy is really key and will open for innovation and a lot of strong upward trajectory in terms of growth and development.

In terms of the region itself, it could do more, in terms of cross border infrastructure, we need to improve trading links across the region and with the rest of the world as well as visa travel. It is the kind of small often unglamorous but very hard agreements to knit together, that is where we come in.

During the recent World Economic Forum held in Davos, conversations were mostly tailored around the fourth industrial revolution. Is there going to be a specific focus for the conversation held in Africa?

The fourth industrial revolution really captured people’s imaginations. People were kind of surprised, shocked. It was a real eye opener.

I think there ought to be another focus on the Fourth Industrial Revolution at the meeting here, I do not think that when it comes to the African story that the outcomes are clear.

On one level it is a great opportunity to leapfrog especially in African continent where there is a lot of innovation, great mobile technology and lots of creative industries.

But we also need to be worried about the fact that it is going to make jobs in some areas hard to find, it means we ought to make sure a certain set of skills should be developed and delivered.

There is probably not going to be anything like a job for life. There could be less job security, bring about a need to develop skills to be relevant in the global economy.

There will be focus on trade a lot at the forum. We are working to bring together stakeholders from different levels to bring together governments and business to rejuvenate the movement towards a trading environment that can unlock investments in the way that the East African Community has done.

Speaking of agenda, do you have a theme yet?

The theme is around connecting Africa’s resources through innovation. It is essentially looking at the fourth industrial revolution through African eye, through Africa’s economic strength at the moment.

Its structure and economy is much dependent on resources, how can we translate that in the age of the fourth industrial revolution. That means developing its human resources and figuring out ways of diversifying so that resources and energy continue to be a major part but not the dominant driver of growth it has been in the past.

The forum is largely termed as a gathering for the rich, powerful and famous on the basis of the profiles of attendants. Who will feature in the upcoming forum and are there efforts to open conversations to ordinary citizens?

In order to get things done, you have to bring in the most important people, leaders. That is the pressure we face. No one wants this meeting to be a gathering of the elite.

We make sure we can make it accessible as possible by broadcasting the sessions so that you can watch from everywhere across the world. We use our public presence to make sure that the global public is involved in the conversation and shapes this conversation.

On who is going to come, we want to make sure we bring in young people; often these meetings are full of leaders of today and not leaders of tomorrow. We have a community called the Global Shapers, most of them in their 20s who organise themselves in different cities and have different hubs, we will have such hubs from across Africa coming.

We also want people from the civil society to have discussions such as income inequality, gender diversity because there are countries in Africa with a situation different from Rwanda’s.

We do not want to shy away from any of those difficult subjects. We also want to be able to help African leaders and society overcome some of the biggest challenges they face.

Looking back, are conversations, resolutions and initiatives borne out of the forum followed up after the forum or is it just a talk shop?

One of the examples is Ashish Thakkar and Bob Diamond met in one of our events and it led to the formation of Atlas Mara group, that gives you an example of the deals and business that could stem from here.

We never capture all the valuable decision and conversations that are made, because we are not privy to all of them. There are solid initiatives that are put in place from these meetings. In 2011, we launched our grow Africa fund initiative along with African Union and NEPAD and last year it identified and unlocked over USD10 billion worth of investment for small holder farming in Africa.

What can Rwandans do in readiness for the forum?

I would like the Rwandan people to join the conversation and tell us the kind of meeting they want. It is a meeting hosted in Rwanda, it is a first time opportunity to showcase some of the best aspects of the country and also help us understand the challenges and tell us what they want us to dedicate our brain space and resources.

We also need to know how we can take your experiences to inform other countries.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw