Good evening to all of you,

I know many of you have come from so far away, and you did that because you had conviction toward what was going to happen here, that FIA has put together.

I want to thank, from the bottom of my heart FIA, and Mohammed Ben Sulayem, and his team for putting all this together and doing Rwanda proud to be able to host you.

We appreciate that, and I hope for all the time you are going to be here, you are going to enjoy your stay.

Just before we came in, Mohammed and I were able to visit the car that was made here in Rwanda by very young talent – students from technical schools.

FIA has been behind that. So, its transferring knowledge, encouraging people to develop and show their talent and skill in different things; they can be able to create and to innovate.

So, FIA I want to thank you. Mohammed, I want to thank you very much. And Rwandans appreciate that you are all here.

But it’s not just for Rwanda. I want you to understand that through your presence here, and actions that you’ve carried out, go as far as the boundaries of this continent. Its for Africa.

It’s long overdue for many things to be happening here in Africa. Yet Africa produces enormous talent. Young people everywhere on the continent, in different fields of sports, show up in large numbers but they are limited by access to opportunity, and your presence here I know, is writing a story about how that opportunity can come to our continent.

So, I appreciate that the message is loud and clear, that instead of Africa exporting talent all the time to other places, it can also be bred, grow, and be seen to stay in Africa.

That doesn’t mean we stop being part of the rest of the world, and going wherever we want to go as Africans, but it means we can’t just be about moving to other places but also being attractive to people from other places to come and join us, and develop the potential that is on our continent like in motor sport and other fields.

So, thank you so much for giving us this opportunity. Thank you for being present here with us.

I’m sure by the time you prepare to go back, you will have collected enough information, knowledge, data, that is not always well reflected in the media, internet and other places.

You have seen, you have heard, you have touched for and by yourselves, so you know much better than before you came here. I really appreciate your presence.

Please feel at home, feel comfortable. Here when things go wrong, if you meet something that you’re not happy about, you have somebody to give a call and say hello can you fix this? And we will all be there to fix that.

Most welcome, we love your presence here. We love you.

Thank you for coming.