This month Burundi will gather the country’s best brains, business captains, manufacturers, policy makers and various experts to brainstorm on how to uplift the country from poverty and catapult development.
The office of the President announced that the forum will be held from April 20-21 at Agateka international conference hall under the theme; ‘Burundi emerging country in 2040 developed country in 2060’.
However,critics of President Evariste Ndayishimiye argue that his government has failed to stabilise the country and still grappling with widespread poverty.
During the first edition of this forum in November 2021, President Ndayishimiye seemed very ambitious but a year later, critics noted; the balance sheet is not unanimous.
“Mobilize all the skills of Burundians where they are for a contribution to the various reflections and the various actions aimed at making Burundi an emerging country by 2040”. That was the purpose of this forum.
However, “today, on this site, the report of these meetings remains untraceable,” says one critic under condition of anonymity.
The President said that the first forum was held after a year of diagnosis of Burundi.
“From this analysis, we found that Burundi is able to be one of the developed countries to see its natural resources and its geographical location in relation to the region, to Africa and to the world,” he told the forum.
He thus stressed that the government of Burundi is firmly committed to the fight against poverty: “And this, with a view to accelerating growth in a sustained, sustainable and inclusive manner to reach the level of an emerging middle-income country”. .
This requires, according to the Head of State, special efforts, another way of working and with the participation of all citizens. And in the face of budgetary challenges, he says he is convinced that the public-private partnership can be an effective solution.
Since Burundi is more than 90% agricultural, President Ndayishimiye stressed that even if Burundian agriculture has made remarkable progress in recent years, efforts are still needed: “And this, to achieve food self-sufficiency and also take advantage of our comparative advantages to export a large volume of agricultural product”.
He also appealed to national or foreign investors: “Business opportunities are not lacking in Burundi. For example, strategic sectors such as industrial mining, infrastructure, agribusiness, ecotourism, vocational education, social housing, healthcare, energy and technology. information and communication.
For the mining sector, Ndayishimiye promised that his government is in the process of improving the mining policy in order to come out with a mining code that will make it possible to conclude win-win contracts.
Increase productivity
To achieve this, President Ndayishimiye pointed out that certain infrastructures are essential.
He cited the construction of the railway, roads, the modernization of the port of Bujumbura and the Melchior Ndadaye International Airport, hydroelectric power stations and the Special Economic Zone.
With all these infrastructures, he is convinced that Bujumbura will be a regional logistics hub.
“To make these ambitions possible, we have found that the priority must be directed in particular towards the development of human capital”.
Thus, the Head of State announced that reforms must be made in the education sector to make education more professional than general.
Note that this forum will last two days. Among the participants in this forum, experts in different fields, academicians, high dignitaries, …
Exchanges focus on agriculture, livestock, export of agricultural products, good governance of the public sector, public-private partnership, infrastructure development, etc.
He noted that the final goal of the forum was to formulate recommendations allowing to move towards a stabilization of the different economic sectors of national life.
However, critics have since argued that the balance sheet is not unanimous, and today, on this site, the report of these meetings remains untraceable.
