The City of Kigali has inked a deal with Eastern China’s Yiwu City to enhance cooperation between the two cities in areas of tourism, trade, science and technology among others.

Signed Friday, November 13 on the sidelines of the import commodities fair in Yiwu City in the Chinese Zhejiang Province, the deal will among other things see made-in-Rwanda products get show-space in Yiwu City’s trading centre, and encourage investments from Yiwu to Kigali.

Investments from Yiwu to Kigali will mainly focus on Kicukiro District where companies from the Eastern China City have already established business activities including Zhejiang China Commodities City Group (CCC Group) which opened the eWTP Yiwu Global Innovation Center Rwanda Digital Trading Hub at Masaka Dry Port.

On the behalf of Rwanda, the MoU was signed by James Kimonyo the country’s Ambassador to China, while the Chinese were represented by Zhang Chao the Vice Mayor of Yiwu City signed.

Yiwu is a county-level city in central Zhejiang Province, East China. With flourishing markets that take up a large area of the city, it is renowned as a shopping paradise for small commodities.

Speaking at the event, ambassador Kimonyo said that the signing is another milestone in the "ever-growing, ever-flourishing excellent relations” between Rwanda and China.

Yiwu’s Vice-Mayor Zhang Chao said that they hope the MoU will serve as a bridge to connect China and Rwanda more closely and deepen cooperation in trade and many other fields.

Meanwhile, Rwanda’s Private Sector Federation (PSF) and the Zhejiang Chamber of Commerce also signed a deal aiming to promote economic and trade cooperation, and exchanges between Rwanda and Zhejiang Province.