Rwanda
eBizGuides Rwanda
Working on development
Le guiaré a lugares increíbles
The concept of eBizguides
eBizGuides aims to provide on-the-ground information about the country economic performance, the main investment opportunities and acute business intelligence research about who are the leaders and influencers of the country and which are the top 100 companies. All you need to know about doing business in a country and in a unique publication that also includes a small tourism guide. eBizGuides are the world's leading business intelligence guidebooks. Click to read more.
Economic environment
The socioeconomic environment of Rwanda offers several development opportunities to the private sector and to entrepreneurship, wherein transparency prevails. The current policy is intended to spur economic growth, as outlined in the document Vision 2020. All sectors are open to foreign investment. The Law Governing Commercial Establishments, the Investment Law, the Law on Privatization and Public Investment, the Land Law, and the Law on Protection and Conservation of the Environment are the main laws governing investment in Rwanda. Some critical laws still await enactment. These include laws on public procurement, on privately financed infrastructure projects, on insurance and on mining..
Strategic development plan
Two major interlinked components of Vision 2020, Rwanda’s strategic development plan, are foreign direct investment (FDI) and increased exports. The priority sectors for export development efforts are coffee, tea and tourism, together projected to generate US $306 million in exports by 2010. However, Rwanda also needs to diversify its exports into areas like mining, pyrethrum and horticulture. According to RIEPA’s Strategic Action Plan, these and other non-priority sectors are expected to represent an increasing proportion of export earnings.
INVESTMENT
So why should foreign investors take an interest in a landlocked country with a limited market? Here are some reasons. First and foremost, Rwanda is virgin territory for investors. The domestic market may be small but it offers opportunities across the board, as so few goods and services are locally produced. The country runs a substantial trade deficit because it imports just about everything. This offers opportunities for import substitution, for example in consumer goods, the largest category of imports. The very fact that this is a landlocked country, to which access only comes with high transport costs, also means that there is a certain natural protection for investors in the country. These features of Rwanda as an investment location would be of particular interest to small investors, especially those already within East Africa, who would have the advantage of a general familiarity with business conditions in the region. Next, Rwanda has some major soft assets. It has a stable Government with a remarkably clear and coherent vision of where it wants to take the country. Some of its plans may strike the outsider as over-ambitious but there is no doubting the commitment behind them. It is also a country that current investors regard as being notably free of corruption, a feature that makes it stand out not only in its neighbourhood but in sub-Saharan Africa more generally.
Partner Companies
Rwanda
The Rwanda is not endowed with a lot of natural resources. However, it extracts mainly coltan, cassiterite, tin ore, tungsten ore and some gold. It also has methane gas deposits beneath Lake Kivu, and efforts are under way to extract it for power generation. Recently, there were also suggestions that there could be
oil in the north of the country and the Government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a Canadian firm to carry out exploration studies in that regard. Rwanda’s blend of tropical location and high altitude ensures that most of the country has a temperate yearround climate. Temperatures rarely stray above 30ºC by day or below 15ºC at night throughout the year. The exceptions are the chilly upper slopes of the Virunga Mountains in the north-west corner of the country, and the hot low-lying eastern part (near the Tanzanian border), which has the protected Akagera National Park. Throughout the country, seasonal variations in temperature are relatively insignificant. Most parts of the country receive in excess of 1,000mm of precipitation annually, with the driest months being July to September and the wettest February to May. However, the country occasionally experiences unpredictable climate seasons
oil in the north of the country and the Government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a Canadian firm to carry out exploration studies in that regard. Rwanda’s blend of tropical location and high altitude ensures that most of the country has a temperate yearround climate. Temperatures rarely stray above 30ºC by day or below 15ºC at night throughout the year. The exceptions are the chilly upper slopes of the Virunga Mountains in the north-west corner of the country, and the hot low-lying eastern part (near the Tanzanian border), which has the protected Akagera National Park. Throughout the country, seasonal variations in temperature are relatively insignificant. Most parts of the country receive in excess of 1,000mm of precipitation annually, with the driest months being July to September and the wettest February to May. However, the country occasionally experiences unpredictable climate seasons
