Focus Media (Kigali)
Sam Ruburika
12 October 2008
For the sixth time, a Belgian business mission has visited the country to assess the investment opportunities as well as looking for partnerships between both business communities. So far, the missions have yielded little result.
The main aim of the mission was to encourage Belgian companies not only to review business opportunities but to also to invest and to establish themselves in the country or to form business partnerships with their Rwandan counterparts.
The Belgian delegation, composed of 20 executives of different companies, were shown the available investment opportunities which ranged from agro processing, tourism, mining and many more by the deputy director general of the Rwanda Investment and Export Promotion Agency (RIEPA), Claire Akamanzi.
She further outlined the incentives offered by RIEPA to facilitate investors, saying that all requirements to establish a business could be dealt with under one roof.
"The red carpet we promise investors in for real," Akamanzi said.
The state minister in charge of investment promotion in the ministry of commerce, Vincent Karega, said that the government aimed at transforming the economy, which so far has been heavily dependent on aid and government business, while the private sector remained weak. He said it was imperative to have an economy driven by a strong private sector, which is why the government creates incentives to encourage both domestic and foreign direct investment.
"We are encouraging the private sector to invest in the agribusiness through value addition, as well as in infrastructure, health and education," State Minister Karega said.
He also outlined the government plans to strategically position the country within the region. The plans include the Isaka-Kigali railway, the Kalisimbi telecommunications mast and the progress being made in ICT which he believed would help Rwanda leapfrog the gap between developed and the developing countries.
From Kenya to Rwanda
According to Maurice Vermeesch, the chairman of the East African chapter of the Belgian Chamber of Commerce, the discussions between the two business communities offered a platform to exchange business ideas, circulate information of interest to both countries, targeting niche markets as well as assessment of business challenges.
Vermeersch remarked that the aim of the mission to Rwanda was to improve trade relations between both countries as well as encouraging Belgian companies to invest in Rwanda.
He also noted that Belgian companies have been visiting Kenya and hoped that with the investment opportunities available in Rwanda they would shift their attention from Kenya.
As main areas of interest for Belgian companies, he mentioned tourism, manufacturing and ICT.
However, the chairman of the Private Sector Federation, Robert Bayigamba, conceded that the previous five Belgian missions have produced little in terms of business between the two business communities. Nevertheless, he said, the presence of Thomas & Piron construction company in Rwanda was a result of the Rwanda-Belgium business forums.
Bayigamba further pointed out that the main interest of the Belgian companies was to find suitable business collaborators in terms of exports and to also form partnerships with Rwandan businesses, yet it seems to be a challenge given the fact that only a few enterprises are involved in exports. Furthermore, the capital required to partner with the Belgians can be afforded only by a few companies.
No one-way street
However, the PSF chairman remarked that his organization was working hard to get more foreign companies invest in the country, so that the local companies could form partnerships with them and in the process learn from their experience.
Moreover, foreign companies could also boost knowledge and innovativeness among PSF members.
"We want to tap their knowledge about business practices, and also try to access their capital through partnerships," Robert Bayigamba said.
He also pointed out that the business corporation between the two communities was not a one-way street, "We do export commodities such as coffee, fruits and bananas," he said, even if imports still exceed exports.
According to Jens Althoff, the commercial project manager at the construction company STRABAG, foreign business is steadily increasing even though it was a slow process. He was confident, however, that in the long term more investors would be operating in the country.
"Entrepreneurs need adequate information before committing their investments in a particular country, and I think that is why the process is slow," Althoff concluded.
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