Belgium scraps $50 mln aid as Rwanda fails to meet democracy target
Mon Dec 22, 2014 4:18pm GMT
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By Clement Uwiringiyimana
KIGALI Dec 22 (Reuters) - Belgium has scrapped 40-million-euro ($50-million)
of aid to Rwanda over its failure to meet media freedom and governance
targets, a diplomat at the Belgian embassy in Kigali said on Monday.
Rwanda's tiny economy remains dependent on outside support and Western
countries' suspension of aid in 2012 over alleged support from President
Paul Kagame's administration for M23 rebels in neighbouring Congo, hurt
Rwanda's growth in 2013.
Belgium in 2011 promised to give Rwanda aid worth 160 million euros over
four years, the diplomat said, and offered an additional 40 million euros if
it met various targets.
"The 40 million euros, in the agreement, was a reward that could be given to
Rwanda if the score on media and governance was sufficiently met. There were
improvements but not sufficient as written in the agreement we signed in
2011," he said.
Rwanda's minister of finance said that the government was still discussing
payment of the extra money with Belgium.
"We are discussing it in our cooperation and we haven't raised it as an
issue at all," Claver Gatete told Reuters.
Rwanda is ranked 162 out of 180 countries in the 2014 Reporters Without
Borders media freedom index. Critics accuse Kagame of trampling on media and
political freedoms.
The economy expanded 4.7 percent in 2013, its weakest since 2003, missing
the central African country's own 7.6 percent forecast.
Many Western partners have since resumed aid flows and Rwanda's economic
growth is seen at 6 percent this year, rising to 6.5 percent in 2015.
(Editing by Drazen Jorgic and Louise Ireland)
Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
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Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
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