James Kimonyo, Rwanda’s ambassador to China, has used social media to promote the East African country’s coffee and chilli.
After seeing the size of China’s online shopping business, Mr Kimonyo told the BBC’s Focus on Africa that he had to abandon the traditional method of advertising in exhibits.
Last month, the ambassador made headlines when he dressed in overalls and rode a delivery bike to bring Rwandan coffee to a customer who had ordered it online.
“China’s TikTok economy is over $5.4 trillion, and not only that, China is the world’s largest internet user, with the largest number of online buyers and is highly connected, with 99 percent of the population owning mobile phones and very effective mobile payment systems,” he told news reports
Mr Kimonyo, who has lived in Beijing for three years, believes that this is the new approach to do diplomacy in a changing world.
“When you’re deployed in a huge mission like this, like China, and you know it’s a big market, you go out there and take advantage of what’s going on,” he explained.
BBC
