Highlights
Rwanda is among the world´s poorest nations, and it faces particular challenges in leveraging FDI for development. Foreign investment flows have been negligible since independence, and Rwanda missed out on the global surge in FDI flows to developing countries in the 1990s. Rwanda has nevertheless achieved remarkable political and social progress since 1994. It has become one Africa īs countries with the highest degree of personal safety and lowest incidence of corruption. It has also started to rebuild its economy, and the Government is fully committed to building a peaceful, stable and prosperous nation through sustainable private sector led development. Much progress in reforming the investment climate has been achieved so far, even though much remains to be done.
The Investment Policy Review suggests three policy avenues to promote FDI and ensure that it contributes to achieving the national development goals:
- Turn Rwanda into a centre of excellence in soft infrastructure and governance.
- Develop a skills attraction and dissemination programme.
- Put in place focused strategic initiatives.
The presentation and peer review of the IPR on 3 October 2006 was attended by the Prime Minister of Rwanda, Hon. Bernard Makuza.
Follow-up activities
Since the IPR was published, UNCTAD has, with funding from the Government of Germany (unless otherwise indicated), assisted the government in the following ways:
- It sensitized Members of Parliament and the Senate on the findings of the IPR of Rwanda.
- It produced an Investment Guide to Rwanda.
- It prepared a strategy for the promotion of the industrial mining sector.
- It drafted a model mining convention.
- It is preparing a client charter for the investment promotion agency.
- It helped the Government to set up a skills attraction and dissemination programme, as recommended in the IPR and it offered capacity building on the key issue of human capital formation for investment. Technical assistance included policy recommendations concerning immigration policy, residence permit systems and the return of skilled labour.
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