BUJUMBURA, June 12th (ABP) – The natives of the new province of Burunga, made up of the provinces of Bururi, Makamba, Rumonge and Rutana, organised a 2nd exchange meeting in Bujumbura on Sunday 8 June 2024 on the province’s development prospects.
The meeting was attended by the Vice-President of the Senate, various government ministers, the Secretary General of the CNDD-FDD party, members of parliament from the province and the governors of the four provinces, a check on the site by ABP has disclosed.
In his opening remarks, CNDD-FDD Secretary General Réverien Ndikuriyo asked the administrative staff of Burunga province to work together to prepare projects to be submitted to the diaspora and other investors. to submit to the diaspora and other investors.
Mr. Ndikuriyo also pointed out that the population plays an important role in the implementation of the national development policy. He also asked the natives of Burunga province to be wary of rumours and to engage in empowerment activities in order to prepare for their future.
Dieudonné Dukundane, Minister of Infrastructure, Equipment and Social Housing, revealed that the budget allocated to the rehabilitation of road infrastructure is available. He went on to say that 90% of products imported into Burundi will pass through the province of Burunga, via the ports of Rumonge and Kabonga, and also across the border at Mabanda. Minister Dukundane urged businessmen to invest in the tourism sector, by building hotels of international standing, so that the tourist sites in the region would be beneficial.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Albert Shingiro, recalled that the Burundian government had decided to reduce the number of provinces in order to strengthen good governance and good relations between the provinces.
Referring to the reduction in youth unemployment in the country, Minister Shingiro said that through the labour exchange partnership with other countries, Burundi had sent more than 5,000 young people to Saudi Arabia in 2023 to find work. Those young people brought in 6 billion BIF into the public treasury to support the country’s development. At the meeting, the Minister of National Education and Scientific Research, François Havyarimana, said that education was the basis for the country’s development. He announced that the government of Burundi would be revitalising teachers’ hostels and increasing the number of boarding schools in order to ensure good quality teaching. He added that the government was also planning to open a branch of the University of Burundi’s Burunga campus in Makamba. He invited the people of Burunga province to prioritise vocational training in the field of education.
During the various presentations, Dr. Pierre Claver Ndayihereje, who spoke on the health situation in the four provinces forming the Burunga province, said that the natives are in good health. He thus encouraged them to contribute to equipment and infrastructure, strengthen the skills of health personnel and promote community health.
According to him, Burunga province has 237 district health centers, 13 communal hospitals, eight district hospitals and two 3rd reference hospitals. In addition, leadership and governance, human resources, medicines and care products, health service delivery and health mutuality are the pillars of the health system in Burunga province, he added.
Professor Diomède Manirakiza, who presented on the current situation of ecotourism in the new Burunga province, indicated that that province has many tourist sites, namely the thermal springs of Rumonge, the Siguvyaye waterfall, the Karera waterfall, the source of the Nile as well as the Gashinyira site.
As far as hotel infrastructure is concerned, Burunga province has 177 hotels, with 1,935 rooms, out of a total of 715 hotels in the country, with 1,083 rooms, he added, pointing out that only 3 of the hotels in Burunga province are of a very high standard. Speaking of the province’s weaknesses in the field of ecotourism, he mentioned the lack of professionalism among tourist guides, the lack of advertising and communication, the lack of maintenance of tourist sites and the absence of financial spin-offs from tourism for local communities.
To remedy those weaknesses in the province, he recommended that the province’s indigenous administrators make banking facilities available to ecotourism businesses, charge for ecosystem goods and services, raise awareness among the province’s indigenous people of the importance of tourist sites, promote ecotourism, and set up a provincial committee and local committees chaired by local administrators to monitor the province’s development activities.