Rwanda to establish centre for technology transfer

Kaliza Karuretwa

By Eric Kabeera

Rwanda has completed plans to establish a centre for innovation and technology that would guide and provide free services to national innovators who need to come up with new ICT-driven ideas.

Kaliza Karuretwa, director general of investment climate and intellectual property in the Ministry of Trade and Industry said this last week at a conference to sensitise stakeholders on the significance of the centre and intellectual property.

Karuretwa acknowledged thatRwandawas endowed with innovative people but lack adequate tools, which was an impediment to the country’s economic development.

“It has been a missing link, we have innovative and creative people but they do not have the tools to use. The centre will provide free access to research facilities among business operators, innovators, and all who will be in need of accessing information. What we want is to empower them because knowledge is power,” Karuretwa said.

The centre would be established in collaboration with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

She said that the government would provide the infrastructure to host the centre while WIPO would offer content, equipment, software, and a database.

Jean Paul Hoebreck, a senior advisor to the assistant Director General of WIPO, said that WIPO was ready to provide all the essential equipment for the centre. He added that there was still need for the government to sensitise nationals on IP rights.

(The New Times, Rwanda)

Shortlink:

Posted by admin on August 21, 2011. Filed under Lead Stories, Rwanda, Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry