URUGWIRO VILLAGE - President Paul Kagame, yesterday held received a visiting delegation from the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) a global network of young Chief Executives.

The 25 member team is in the country to explore opportunities and solicit Rwandan companies to join YPO as well as discuss ways the business community can be connected to the rest of the world through shared interests and passions.

YPO and its graduate organization, World Presidents’ Organization (WPO) share a founding mission of "better leaders through education and ideas exchange”.

The companies run by YPO and WPO members employ more than 15 million people and generate US $ 5.4 trillion in annual revenues.

Speaking to reporters shortly after the meeting, Isak Pretorius, leader of the delegation, said that the group is part of the selected YPOs to understand investments opportunities in Rwanda.

"We discussed with the president about the situation here in Rwanda in order for us to know how we can contribute to his vision towards building this nation,” he added.

Pretourius stated that everybody in the group is interested in participating in the development of Rwanda’s economy .
"We want to learn from President Kagame’s good leadership so that we can take the power of what is happening here and expand it across the continent,” he noted.

He mentioned that the first four members from the Rwandan business community will be joining YPO and was proud of them.

"We are looking forward to building strong YPO representation in Rwanda by contributing towards it and benefiting from it as well,” Pretorius said.

"If Rwanda reaches the minimum requirement of 15 members who joined YPO, we will be able to establish the YPO Rwanda chapter. It’s up to the Rwandan Business community to determine when that happens.”

With the YPO and WPO having established a graduate centre, this provides an opportunity to Rwandans to connect with other YPO graduates from around the world for a lifelong leadership experience.

John Gara, CEO of Rwanda Development Board (RDB) said that the delegation came to talk to a number of companies in the country and to also find out whether there are business opportunities they can take over.

"They had an interesting discussion with the President where they were very keen to know where Rwanda has reached in terms of development. They have been quite impressed by what they have seen and with people they met,” he noted.

Gara stated that President Kagame told them about the spirit of Rwanda and how Rwandans preserve their dignity.
"They asked him questions about how we have managed to have zero tolerance on corruption and a very clean country and he gave them an insight about that,” he said.
YPO was founded in 1950 in New York City by manufacturer Ray Hickok who was 27 years old at the time of taking over his family’s 300 employee company.

The basic requirement to join YPO is to be a leader of an eight million dollar turnover business and be below the age of 45 years.

On Friday , the team met with over 20 leading businessmen and women, RDB officials, Rwanda’s High Commissioner to South Africa and the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning.

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