The recent visit of the President of Rwanda Paul Kagame to Qatar further indicates the growing bilateral relations between the two countries. Despite diplomacy between the two states being relatively new, there have been several visits by the Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani to Rwanda and President Kagame to Qatar.
After establishing diplomatic relations in 2017, both leaders met in September 2018 on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly, and later in November, Kagame paid a two-day visit to Qatar.
During his visit, both parties signed several agreements to facilitate and drive economic cooperation.
This included agreements in air services, reciprocal promotion and protection of investments, and a memorandum of understanding on economic, commercial, and technical cooperation.
In April 2019, H H the Amir visited Rwanda on a three-day state visit. Four bilateral agreements were reportedly signed between the two countries. Later that year, H H the Amir was in Kigali to mark the 4th world anti-corruption day event termed the Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani International Anti-Corruption Excellence Award.
On that visit, both leaders witnessed the signing of an acquisition agreement of 60 percent of Bugesera Airport shares, a shareholders’ agreement, and a guarantee agreement between Qatar Airways and the Rwandan air transport company.
Meanwhile, the Rwandan embassy in Doha was launched in 2019, while Qatar opened its embassy in Kigali in July this year. H E Abdullah bin Mohammed Al Sayed became the country’s first ambassador to the East African nation.
In February this year, Rwanda and Qatar signed a landmark Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA).
The agreement clarifies the taxing rights of contracting states on all forms of income flows arising from business activities and avoids the double taxation of such income. The treaty applies to individuals who are residents in the contracting states.
Also, RwandAir and Qatar Airways signed an interline agreement as part of a “strategic partnership” in August.
According to the terms of the agreement, travellers can access more than “160 destinations in the combined networks” from the carriers’ respective hubs in Kigali and Doha. Qatar Airways also has plans to take a 49% stake in RwandAir.
Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Rwanda Finance (RFL) to promote the international development of both the QFC and Kigali International Financial Centre.
As one of the fastest-growing economies in Africa, Rwanda presents a thriving and stable investment eco-system across industries like textiles, clothing, leather, agriculture, livestock, industry, tourism, ICT, and trade facilitation for Qatari investment in Africa.
