Tag: a_doingbusiness
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Rwanda-India Trade Valued at US$67 billion
The high Commissioner of Rwanda to India Williams Nkurunziza, has said that Trade between Rwanda and India is valued at US$67 billion a year.
Nkurunziza expressed confidence that the volume of trade could rise.
“The East African community,has an agreement of duty free movement, which is an opportunity to explore strong business ties between India and Rwanda,” Nkurunziza said.The High Commissioner was speaking to an Indian newspaper shortly after the ‘Invest North’ conference, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) at Gurgaon, the suburban industrial and business hub of Delhi.
“India’s advantage of being the fourth-largest economy in the world in terms of purchasing power parity can be leveraged by adopting certain key measures like fast tracking infrastructure projects, procedural reforms to enable speedy clearances, streamlined systems and an enabling business climate,” said Richard Rekhy, co-chairman of CII Invest North 2012 and CEO, KPMG India.
Rekhy said Foreign investment in India stood at US$201 billion, and foreign trade, which is at 46% of the GDP, have also immense potential to grow further, he said.
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More Challenges in Rwanda’s Wood Industry
The future of wood based industries will depend on the status of the forest cover, demand for wood products and population growth.
However human population growth is a crucial factor in the consideration of future industrial raw materials demand of which, in Rwanda is the driving factor to future success in both forestry and industry sector.
Members of DUHAGURURE KORA Cooperative based in Musanze District deals with furniture production and sawn wood merchandising.
Cooperative members revealed that Low quality sawn wood from pit sawyers (types of woods) leads to low quality wood products unable to compete with imports from outside the country.
According to members of the cooperative, lack of modern equipment to produce products fitting international standards and to gather consumer confidence in local products is still a major challenge to them.
As a way to improve the sector, local authorities revealed that there are ongoing support actions to improve the sector including trainings seminars to pitsawyers (small scale sawmillers) in order to improve sawnwood quality and handling techniques to minimize wood waste and to maximize the returns from the felled trees.
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Rwandair Expecting New Planes
National Carrier Rwandair will recieve two new planes on Monday adding to its fleet with two new aircrafts from Bombardier Aerospace of Canada.
Following a handover ceremony held at Bombardier’s Mirabel, Québec facility, on Friday, CRJ900 NextGen regional jets will touch ground in Rwanda at Kigali International Airport.
John Mirenge, Chief Executive Officer of RwandAir,says, “This means a lot to us. It is an addition of two brand new aircrafts that have been added to our existing fleet of five, making it seven in total.”
“This will give us more capacity in terms of seats that we can offer to our customers and it opens up capacities for us to extend our reach into further destinations within the African continent.”
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Burundi Revenue Collection up by 9.1%
Burundi has recorded a huge leap in revenue collection rising by 9.1% annually at US$257.5 million tax collection in the nine months to September.
The anti Corruption efforts are paying off in a largely corrupt East African country.
Burundi Revenue Authority says, “The tax base grew with a registration of 5,000 new contributors who were in the informal sector and who didn’t pay tax before.”
Monthly tax revenues collected in September this year fell to 41 billion francs from 44.5 billion francs in September 2011.
The board said this was due to the government’s decision to suspend tax on basic food imports to the landlocked central African country, to ease the impact of soaring prices of essential commodities.
The decision came into effect in May and will last until the end of December.
In order to plug a US$64 million revenue deficit on the current 2012 budget, the government has raised taxes on beer, liquors, mineral water and other beverages.
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Trade Volumes Record Slight Drop
The Rwanda Stock Exchange market October 16, slightly went down in traded volumes and turnover compared to yesterday’s trading session.
The total turnover for the day was Rwf 21,702,600 from 115,900 BK shares and 15,100 BRALIRWA shares traded in fifteen deals compared to yesterday’s trading session which recorded a turnover of Rwf 24,504,000 from 136,400 BK shares and 15,400 Bralirwa shares traded in seven deals.
BK shares traded at Rwf 130 and Rwf 131 and closed at Rwf 131, registering an increase of Rwf 1 compared to yesterday’s closing price while BRALIRWA shares traded between Rwf 435 and Rwf 440 and closed at Rwf 440; unchanged from yesterday’s closing price.
KCB and NMG shares prices last transacted at Rwf 154 and Rwf 1,200 respectively.
At the end of formal trading hours, there were outstanding bids of 1,000,000 BK shares at Rwf 130 and outstanding offers of 24,900 shares at Rwf 131 and Rwf 132.
On Bralirwa counter, there were outstanding bids of 41,700 shares between Rwf 425 and Rwf 435 and no outstanding offers.
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EAC Diaspora in Texas Urged to invest in Rwanda
The East African Diaspora community from North America has highlighted Rwanda as a main destination for investment with opportunities in hospitality and tourism, agribusiness amongst many others.
The idea was noted during a 3 day annual Conference in Richardson, Texas; a city known as the “Telecom Corridor of the United States”.
During the event, Ambassador of Rwanda to the United States, James Kimonyo discussed topics on the unique nature of the investment climate in Rwanda.
According to the statement received by IGIHE, In the midst of large East African and U.S. companies, they were able to showcase the limitless business opportunities that Rwanda has to offer and encouraged the audience to think of Rwanda as their next business venture.
The vice-chair of the East Africa Chamber of commerce Mr. Frank Kanobana; a Rwandan National said, “he strives to encourage Rwandan Diaspora around Texas to be involved in the initiative as it will be of benefit both to themselves and to Rwanda in turn”.
Similarly, the embassy officials were also able to meet with the Mayor of Dallas as well as various executives of companies in a private setting, paving the platform to have a one-to-one conversation regarding Rwanda and its array of opportunities.
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Korea, Africa Hold Cooperation Conference
South Korea and the African Union are jointly holding the Korea Africa Economic Cooperation Conference in Seoul from Oct. 15-18, bringing 150 ministers and heads of 18 African nations and international organizations.The South Korean foreign ministry says, “Africa is the last growth engine of the world economy, which has unlimited growth potential,” Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan said in a letter of invitation. “This forum is expected to provide a good opportunity (for South Korea) to strengthen ties with Africa.”
The conference remains the biggest event co-organized between Africa and Korea.
The theme of this year’s conference focuses on “inclusive and green growth,” and the program will include the ministerial roundtable, bilateral meetings of ministers, economic cooperation seminars, African countries’ investor relation activities, and one-on-one business meetings.
AfDB Senior Management and Executive Directors from Regional Member Countries will attend all the conference activities.
The conference outcomes are expected to increase inclusive economic growth of African countries through the application of Korea’s development approaches.
It will also knowledge on inclusive growth in sectors such as human resource development, infrastructure, energy, information technology, agriculture and green growth; and to enhance political and economic cooperation between Africa and Korea through increased trade, investment and dialogue.
The partnership between the African Development Bank Group and the Republic of Korea began in 1980, when Korea joined the African Development Fund (ADF) in 1980 and the African Development Bank (AfDB) in 1982.
In 2009, Korea provided a temporary AfDB capital increase of US $306.1 million and supported in 2010 the historic General Capital Increase (GCI) VI of 200 per cent and ADF-XII replenishment amounts of UA 53.86 million (KRW 94.77 billion) representing an increase of 66 per cent from its ADF-XI contribution.
At the recently concluded ADF-12 Mid Term Review in Cape Verde, Korea played an active role in the discussions and highlighted the Bank’s focus on energy and natural resources, including the role of PPPs in infrastructure development.
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Kivu Belt Financing Mobilization Sealed
Rwanda has signed a Financing Agreement with the Saudi Fund For Development to co-finance Lot 6, Rubengera-Gasiza of Kivu Belt Multinational Road.
The MOU was signed October 12, in Tokyo-Japan as a sideline event to the World Bank/IMF Annual Meetings.
The Government of Rwanda, represented by Honorable John Rwangombwa, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning and the Saudi Fund For Development, represented by HE Eng. Yousef Ibn Ibrahim Al-Bassam, the Fund’s Vice Chairman and Managing Director.
The aforesaid signing ceremony is about the US$ 13,000,000 pledge that Saudi Fund For Development did during the fundraising round table to co-finance Lot 6, Rubengera-Gasiza of Kivu Belt Multinational Road as sidelines of the 9th Government of Rwanda Development Partners Meeting (DPM) November 2010 in Kigali.
During its meeting in the 2nd quarter of 2012, the Fund’s board of Directors approved the Loan to Rwanda of US$ 13 Million under more good (concessional) terms.
During the signing ceremony Rwangombwa, on behalf of the Government of Rwanda, and HE Eng. Ibrahim Al-Bassam, expressed their satisfaction on the development partnership between Rwanda and and the Saudi Fund.
The road will be 23.6 Km long and 7 meters wide at a total cost of US$ 52.7 Million. The other contributors to the funding of the road section are: the Government of Rwanda (USD 4.35 Million), Kuwait Fund For Arab Economic Development (US$ 13 Million), The OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID, US$ 10 Million), Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA, US$11 Million).
We have signed with all other 3 Arab co-financiers;
Design studies were completed in 2008 by Saudi International and Construction Works started in 2010 by Lot 3, Rusizi-Mwityazo, 50 Km, under the funding from the African Development Bank, of US$ 63 Million.
The African Development Bank and Government of Rwanda have also financed Lot 7, Gasiza-Rubavu (US$ 68 Million) of 47,8 Km.
The Government of Rwanda contracted a US$ 113 Million China Export Import Bank to construct Lot 4 and Lot 5, 66 Km from Mwityazo (Nyamasheke) to Rubengera (Karongi).
The total length of the multinational (Burundi-Rwanda) Road is 265.7km, with 185 Km on Rwandan side (Kivu Belt Road) to cost Rwanda on designs, construction and supervision of works US$ 350 Million.
With the Saudi Fund financing, the mobilization of the funding is concluded.
When completed, the multinational road will have among other benefits such as promoting regional integration, contribute to trade and provide easy access to these land locked countries to the sea ports.
It additionally will increase the potential for tourism and fisheries on Lake Tanganyika and Lake Kivu.
As internal benefits, the road will increase trade, reduce transportation time and costs in the western province, as well as the rest of the country. The Western province produces 70% of the nation’s coffee and 40% of the nation’s tea.
Ongoing projects of the Fund include “Increased Electricity Access in Some Areas in Rwanda” project: US$ 11 .7 Million, the “Rehabilitation of Kitabi-Congo nil Road” Project : US$ 10 Million and the Rehabilitation and the “Extension of King Faisal Hospital” Project: US$ 12 Million.