Kigali, 13th June, 2014-The Minister of Infrastructure, Prof. Silas Lwakabamba had a meeting with the Belgium Ambassador, H.E Marc Pacsteen and Belgian Technical Cooperation (BTC) Head of Cooperation, Mr. Erwin De Wandel.

The meeting was also attended by Minister of State in charge of Energy and Water in the Ministry of Infrastructure, Engineer Emma. F. Isumbingabo, Mr. Jean Yves Saliez, the BTC outgoing Resident Representative in Rwanda, Mr. Benoit Piret, and BTC incoming Resident Representative to Rwanda, Mr. Ntare Karitanyi, the Director General of Energy, Water and Sanitation (EWSA) Ltd among others.

The aim of the meeting was to assess the progress of Belgium-Rwanda development cooperation towards infrastructure development in Rwanda.

The discussions tackled much on the completed energy projects since 2008 to date, water and sanitation extension programmes, and capacity building plans and strengthening future development cooperation.

BTC supported power transmission of 30KV electric power line of 84km (medium voltage from Kigali to Kiyumba, construction of micro hydro power projects such as Rukarara 2 of 2.2MW,Keya of 2.2MW,Nkora of 0.3MW and Cyimbiri of 0.6 MW which  improve access to reliable and cost effective electricity services for households and priority public institutions.

The discussions also based on how better the off-grid solutions to support rural areas, water and sanitation programmes can be extended further for the betterment of lives of people.

The officials agreed to encourage private sector participation in the generation of electricity from renewable sources, through the establishment of adequate feed-in-tariffs to develop a tariff structure for the purchase of energy by EWSA from small sized hydro, solar or wind based power generation plants and to put in place a feed-in tariff based on cost recovery plus return on investment basis to encourage mobilization of private investors.

The officials also agreed on institutional strengthening and capacity building target in expertise areas and future cooperation and also consider inter-regional projects such as interconnections, power trade to support reaching 70% electricity access by 20-20.