China investment aids Rwanda recovery

Chinese investment in Rwanda, concentrated in infrastructure projects, is playing a major role in the East African nation’s reconstruction. According to Caixin, China is now the second-largest source of foreign direct investment in Rwanda, behind only the European Union. In 2009, the Export-Import Bank of China offered the Rwandan government a concessional loan of 219 million yuan to build Kigali’s public roads. This sum was followed by 720 million yuan in 2012, for the construction of a 66-kilometer road near Lake Kivu. Today, there are 2,000-odd Chinese nationals living and working in Rwanda. When Chinese President Xi Jinping and Rwandan President Paul Kagame met in Beijing last month, they reaffirmed their commitment to plans discussed at the 2016 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation held in Johannesburg, South Africa. The Beijing meeting was the latest such affirmation in a decades-long relationship between China and Rwanda.