The 3rd
East African Community (EAC) Academia-Public-Private-Sector Forum
opened today in Kigali, Rwanda, with a call by His Excellency President
Paul Kagame to the stakeholders to redesign and streamline the region’s
economic development approaches to meet the high
expectations of the East African people.
President
Kagame, who was represented by his Minister for Education Prof. Silas
Lwakabamba at the official opening of the Forum, challenged the
Academia-Public-Private Partnership
to take advantage of the commitment of the EAC Partner States, as
stipulated in Articles 79 and 80 of the Treaty for the Establishment of
the EAC, in which the role of innovation is broadly spelt out.
The
President urged the participants to borrow a leaf from other global
experiences, whereby emerging economies and transition countries have
increasingly recognized that
knowledge, new technology and innovation were crucial elements for
driving systematic and progressive socioeconomic development, and were
vital for promoting a country’s or region’s competitiveness in the
international economic order.
President
Kagame commended the leadership and the entire Inter University Council
for East Africa for their invaluable contribution through the
development and implementation
of various higher education harmonization strategies, frameworks,
guidelines and standards, the impact of which will steer the region into
a common higher education area.
The
President also commended the Private sector through the East African
Business council for playing its role as the key pillar in supporting
the socio-economic development
agenda of the EA, and in moving the regional integration forward.
The
Chairperson of the EAC Council of Ministers, Hon. Phyllis J. Kandie,
who was represented by Kenya’s High Commissioner in Rwanda His
Excellency John Mwangemi said the Forum
came at a time when the EAC Partner States had great desire to
transform their economies into a knowledge-based which could only be
achieved and sustained by the development of a strong innovation system.
The
Chairperson noted that there was urgent need to redesign the training
curriculum and the way it is delivered so that the education and
training systems are able to churn
out graduates who are creative, innovative and entrepreneurial.
The
Secretary General of the East African Community, Amb. Dr. Richard
Sezibera is confident that Academia-Public-Private Partnership will take
advantage of the available political
commitment and enabling legal framework at the national and regional
levels to drum-up and consolidate views of stakeholders to achieve the
short and long term goals of the socio-economic
development agenda of the Community.
Amb.
Sezibera emphasized that the people of East Africa were eagerly looking
forward to the impact and outcome of this partnership to transform the
regional economies; promote
industrialization and improve the livelihood of the common citizens.
The
Chairperson of the East African Business Council, Mr. Felix G. N. Mosha
noted that a new paradigm calls for effective interaction between
Universities and the private
sector to put East Africa in the main stream of technological
revolution that would enable SMEs and large corporate entities alike to
generate and use knowledge in order to achieve their innovative
potential.
Mr.
Mosha said collaboration between the private sector and the academia
was an effective, practical and realistic way to carry out such
development work, in addition to building
the region’s innovation capacity and intellectual capital.
The
Executive Secretary of the Inter-University Council of East Africa
(IUCEA) Prof. Mayunga Nkunya, disclosed that the Forum was geared
towards coming up with practical strategies
for implementing academia-public-private partnership platforms in the
EAC to spur socio-economic development.
The
delegates attending the Forum are drawn from the EAC Secretariat and
Institutions, heads of higher education institutions, national
commissions and councils for higher
education, and national commissions and councils for science and
technology, government institutions and ministries, international
organizations, NGOs, academicians, students, private individuals,
businessmen, media and stakeholders in academia and the private
and public sectors in the Partner States.
The
IUCEA, East African Business Council (EABC) and East African
Development Bank (EADB) have jointly organized this year’s Forum under
the theme:
“Harnessing East Africa’s Innovation Potential”.
Hakuna maoni :
Chapisha Maoni