The new Rwanda is about building an economy that delivers prosperity and opportunity for our citizens based on a robust private sector. Foreign adventures would be costly and counterproductive distractions from these challenging objectives.

Moving container from Kigali to Mombasa used to take 22 days, now it takes 6 days.

Rwanda is rebuilding itself once again as one nation and that is the reason why we are making progress. Now many Rwandans are making their ends meet and others are able to do better than they have before.

Human rights are not the preserve of Western activists: The definition must extend to encompass the right to the dignified life; the right to send your kids to school, for that child to get health care, for access for greater prosperity for generations to come and to have a say in the destiny of your community and country. Under that definition, Rwanda has nothing to learn from advocacy groups who think they own the copyright on what constitutes human rights under all conditions in every corner of the world.

There are things I admire, for example, about South Korea or Singapore. I admire their history, their development and how intensively they have invested in their people and in technology.

My own experience from a decade ago taught me I cannot trust the UN. But it is a world body and we have to live with it and tolerate it. But I can't hide my feelings about its inefficiency and its not being productive.

Up to a certain extent the UN soldiers are useful. But they are consuming a lot of resources in relation to the little work they are doing.