TUNIS, Sept. 1(Xinhuanet)-- Former Rwandan Finance Minister Donald Kaberuka took office here Thursday as president of the African Development Bank(AfDB).

In his inauguration speech, Kaberuka said that Africa's situation for development is better at present than in the past due to achievements of African countries in solving conflicts and implementing reforms along with promises from the international community to help the continent in its development process.

The new president said that as Africa's largest financial institution, the AFBD should make a full use of the favorable situation, get a thorough knowledge of the development level of African countries, raise the efficiency of loans and aid, and cooperate closely with other international financial organizationsto contribute to Africa's poverty reduction and economic development.

Kaberuka, 53, also stressed that African countries should not always depend on other countries' aid, but should strengthen tradeamong themselves, reduce production costs and risks, continue to develop the market and attract more foreign investments in order to realize a sustained development.l

On July 21, Kaberuka was elected by 55 of the 77 member states to replace Morocco's Omar Kabbaj, who had headed the bank for two terms.

Born in 1952 in the northern Rwandan town of Byumba, Kaberuka left the country for Uganda and Tanzania with his parents at the age of eight.

He went to England later, completed an economics doctorate at the University of Glasgow and then taught at the University of Sussex.

Kaberuka once worked at the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange(LIFFE) and then Lloyd's Bank.

In 1987, Kaberuka went to work at the International Coffee Organisation in Abidjan.

Appointed finance minister of Rwanda in 1997, Kaberuka has since 2002 been co-chair of the ministerial committee of the Debt Initiative for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries, an international program to provide debt relief to poor countries that pursue economic reforms.

Kaberuka was believed to be the architect of policies to put Rwanda's economy back on track after the 1994 genocide in which 800,000 people are estimated to have perished.

The AFBD, which was founded in November 1964 and moved its headquarters temporarily from Abidjan to Tunis in 2003 due to violent unrest in Ivory Coast, aims to promote economic and socialdevelopment of African countries.

By the end of 2004, the bank has provided its members with aid totaling 52 billion US dollars in over 3,000 agricultural, industrial, transportation, energy and social development projects. Enditem