Rwanda’s technical and vocational education programme is poised to benefit from a new bilateral agreement with Turkey.

The agreement, signed Tuesday, was one of many between Foreign Affairs minister Louise Mushikiwabo and her Turkish counterpart Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, during a state visit of the Turkish official.

The agreement on cooperation in education aims to develop bilateral ties and exchanges on the basis of equality, mutual benefit and reciprocity.

The two nations agreed to promote and facilitate cooperation in 14 areas of education, including exchange of experts, teachers and students, sharing experiences in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), and sharing experiences regarding new technologies applied in education.

Turkey is known among the countries that are most advanced in implementing TVET, where it includes two main dimensions: theoretical (school training) and practical (in-company training).

Speaking to The New Times, yesterday, the Director-General of Workforce Development Authority (WDA), Jerome Gasana, said the agreement comes to supplement ongoing government initiatives to bridge the import-export gap.

Gasana said: "In the past one to two years, we started increasing Made-in-Rwanda products and for this to happen, we need to increase our capacity through TVET.

"We have been working to increase TVET access throughout the country and I believe that this new agreement will contribute a lot. We now have close to 383 TVET schools in the country. The strategy is to have three good schools in every district by 2017.”

The Government seeks to see to it that by 2017/18, 60 per cent of the youth are going through TVET.

In the agreement on education, the scope of cooperation also includes provision of vocational training of trainers for TVET teachers and instructors, and organisation of education programmes in the same field.

Apart from the pact on cooperation in education, two others; abolition of visas for diplomats, and cooperation between the two countries’ foreign affairs ministries, were signed.

In her initial statement during a brief joint news briefing, Mushikiwabo said: "We look forward to upgrading our already excellent cooperation in various areas, not just in the sectors for which we just signed these agreements.”

"We appreciate Turkey’s openness and commitment to Africa. And Rwanda believes very much that what we have, which is good, we could have even more working closely with Turkey.”

Çavuşoğlu said he was "proud” to be the first Turkish foreign minister to visit Rwanda, adding that Africa has an important place in Turkey’s foreign policy.

Balancing trade volume

The Turkish foreign minister called for balancing of bilateral trade numbers for mutual benefit.

Çavuşoğlu said: "We need to increase bilateral trade volume, which is around $30 million. I agree that we must balance it as well. There is an imbalance in favour of Turkey. But we can balance it and we can increase the trade volume through the diversification of goods and also increasing investments.”

He also thanked the Government for putting trust in Turkish companies.

Last year, Government hired a Turkish engineering firm, Summa, to complete construction of the Kigali Convention Centre, which is expected to open this month and later host the African Union Summit.

Earlier this year, in a new deal, dubbed "Corporate Premium Programme Agreement,” Turkish Airlines offered to give preferential rates to Rwandan traders to ease their movement to Turkey.

Çavuşoğlu said: "We are very impressed by the development and transformation of Rwanda under the leadership of President Paul Kagame and I hope Rwanda will continue its progress in every area.”

Later, the ministers officially opened the Embassy of Turkey to Rwanda, located in Kimihurura, Kigali.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw