The City of Kigali have inked a deal with the Chinese city of Yiwu to promote tourism, trade, science and technology in a “win-win” cooperation, a statement issued Saturday said.
The deal endorsed late Friday will among other things see made-in-Rwanda products get show-space in Yiwu City’s trading centre, and encourage investments from Yiwu to Rwandan capital city Kigali.
Investments from Yiwu to Kigali will mainly focus on urban areas 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.
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.
Yiwu’s Vice-Mayor Zhang Chao was quoted in a statement as saying 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.
Since 2019, , Rwandan companies have been invited to participate in various exhibitions as part of the People’s Republic of China’s measures to actively open the Chinese market to the world.
There was the first China Africa Economic and Trade Expo that was held in Hunan province, Changsha. At this occasion, Rwandan entrepreneurs turned up to create connections with their counterparts from China as well as showcasing their products.
It is also believed that accessing the Chinese market will greatly boost the business of Rwandan companies. Rwandan participation could also help speed up the ongoing application process for Rwandan fresh products to be eligible for export to China such as beef, chili, and avocados among others.
