Rwandan President Paul Kagame said Thursday that the small East African nation has emerged among the fastest growing economies in the world in a short period of time.
Kagame made the remarks on Thursday while opening the 12th National Dialogue Council locally known as "Umushyikirano". The president also delivered State of the Nation address at the same event held at Rwanda parliamentary buildings.
The head of state said that the economy grew by 7.8 percent in the third quarter of 2014, and largely attributed the growth to the strong performance of the service and agriculture sectors.
Kagame praised farmers for increasing their production and urged them to embark on modern farming and irrigation. Agriculture grew by 6 percent mainly resulting from increased food and cash crop production.
"Individual farmers' productivity increased and created an expanded aggregated productivity of the thus reducing food prices. I want to thank Rwandan farmers for working hard to serve domestic and foreign markets. But we can produce more if we keep up the momentum," Kagame said.
Key achievements that have been registered in the past years include refurbishment and expansion of Kigali International Airport, more Rwandans joining the formal financial sector, 6 million Rwandans getting land titles, among others.
About 85 percent, depends on agriculture, Kagame outlined three main areas of concern that will receive increased funding.
"The state of our nation is strong but to maintain the pace of progress we cannot afford to get complacent. We must work harder to protect the value of each individual life and livelihood. We have only just begun to address challenges; we must solve to make Rwanda a self-reliant and middle-income country," he said.
He explained that Rwandans can take satisfaction from progress made in the last two decades but they shouldn't relent their effort.
"We will complete our tenure on UNSC and we thank our fellow African countries who entrusted us with this responsibility. Rwanda's peacekeepers bring honor to our country and we are proud of their commitment," Kagame noted.
Kagame said that Rwanda is on course towards reaching its goal of becoming a middle-income economy, but to achieve that, he said, there is need for more efforts.
Umushyikirano is the country's largest annual forum where citizens of all walks of life meet to chart the way forward on national development.
This year's forum is running under the theme, "Common Vision, New Momentum."
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