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FISME makes Rwanda road show a big hit
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A high-level 25-member business delegation from the central African Republic of Rwanda led by their agriculture and animal resources minister Dr Agnes M. Kalibata was here in India last fortnight to hold business road shows to attract Indian investments to Rwanda. This was the second such road show after the one held last year. This year the Rwandan government chose to collaborate with FISME, India’s largest MSME organisation, for the business road shows which were held in Delhi on October 18, 2011, in Bangalore on October 20, 2011 and in Chennai on October 21, 2011. The objective was to attract Indian micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to Rwanda.
Thanks to the efforts of FISME Joint Secretary Mukesh Kalra and his team, all the three events were a resounding success with more than a hundred investors enthusiastically participating in each of the three road shows. |
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It became very clear at the road shows that there was tremendous scope for MSMEs to invest in Rwanda. In the main presentation, Ms Clare Akamanzi, chief operations officer of the Rwanda Development Board said “Rwanda offers investment opportunities in many areas. The broad areas are infrastructure, agriculture, energy, tourism, information and communication technology, real estate and construction, financial services, mining, general manufacturing, education and health sectors.”
Apart from the Rwandan minister and the RDB COO, other members of the delegation included Mr Emmanuel Hategeka, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Trade and Industry, Government of Rwanda, and some of the top business tycoons of Rwanda.
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Among the specific sectors that got Indian investors enthusiastic about investment in Rwanda included a whole gamut of areas ranging from construction materials, plastics and packaging, ICT solutions, postgraduate education, renewable energy and infrastructure.
During the deliberations, Mr Hategeka pointed out that Rwanda offered many fiscal as well as non-fiscal incentives for investors. This was apart from the obvious business benefit of being able to serve the entire East African Community (EAC) market comprising some 135 million people from business units located in Rwanda.
Answering questions from the floor, the Rwandan High Commissioner to India H.E. Williams Nkurunziza welcomed an investor who was keen on doing business with Rwanda in construction materials. He said “You are most welcome to set up a building materials distribution centre as we need one. Moreover, you would be able to serve all the neighbouring countries as all of them now import such materials.”
While the road show in Delhi was very well attended, the road shows in Bangalore and Chennai also got overwhelming response from MSMEs thanks to the efforts of FISME.
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In Chennai, Dr. T. S. Sridhar, IAS, Principal Secretary - MSME Dept., Government of Tamil Nadu, was the guest of honour.
Rwanda is one of the fastest growing African economies with the country having posted an average growth rate of more than 7% over the last few years. Rwanda is a virgin economy and ripe for immense trade and investment opportunities. Located at the heart of Africa, it provides businesses a strategic launching pad for foraying into the East and Central African market of nearly 200 million people and a combined GDP of over US$100 billion.
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The World Bank’s Doing Business Report (2010), ranks Rwanda as the top pro-business reformer in the world. The report also ranks Rwanda top in East Africa in terms of ease of doing business: 58th among 183 countries, ahead of Czech Republic (63), Turkey (65), Poland (70), Vietnam (78), China (79), Italy (80) and India (134). Incidentally, the recently published Doing Business Report 2012 ranks Rwanda at 45 having improved its position by four ranks in 2011 (rank 50 in DBR 2011) and by another five places in the DBR2012.
The event got a fair bit of media coverage. Click here to read these reports.
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