Cooperation: Economic Cooperation Media Tour (October 12th, 2016)

On October 12th, the Embassy organized a media tour for the local media of Rwanda. The tour visited Japanese economic cooperation site, Rusumo One Stop Border Post (OSBP), amounting up to 3.7 billion Japanese yen of grant (for both Rwandan and Tanzanian side) which locates between Rwanda-Tanzania border.
The Ambassador of Japan, H.E. Mr. Takayuki Miyashita and ten journalists from various media (*) participated in the tour. This facility was officially launched on April 6th 2016 honored by the presence of H.E. President of the Republic of Rwanda, Mr. Kagame and his Tanzania counterpart H.E. Mr. Magufuli.
This facility enabled to ease restrictions on passing vehicles and to make overland transportation easier by processing exit and entry formalities at the same time. After the opening of this facility, the number of passing vehicles has increased by more than 20% per day. This new system of OSBP will also contribute largely to EAC regional integration by facilitating border procedure which was the bottleneck of the Central Corridor, especially for the country like Rwanda which heavily depends on the commerce coming from Dar es Salaam.

(*) Journalists from the following media participated in the media tour (Newspapers: the New Times, Imvaho Nshya　and East African Business Week, TV: Rwanda TV, Radios: Radio Rwanda, City Radio, KT Radio and Contact FM, Online News Sites: Igihe and Kigali Today)