The Private Sector Federation [PSF] in collaboration with Harvard Business School’s Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness from Thursday, held a three-day training at Hotel Novotel Kacyiru, aimed at encouraging a more competitive business atmosphere in Rwanda.

"We are devising means to make Rwanda a more competitive and productive nation,” said professor Micheal Unger, a Harvard academic.

On day one, Finland and Nokia Company, globally known for having gone through reforms to achieve their present success, were used as models to illustrate the significance of strategy, innovation and competition.

"I hope by the end of the training, some of the firms will have identified areas of transformation,” said Emmanuel Hategeka, the PSF Secretary General. 

Benjamin Mutimura, a Development Finance Officer at the Commercial Bank of Rwanda [BCR] observed that the workshop was vital to the banking sector as well.

"It is very important and factors of competition entail productivity. It also requires a strategy to differentiate ourselves and understand the needs and design a strategy accordingly,” he said.

Hategeka noted that since 2001, there has been a lot of business progress in the country.

"We, however, have reached that phase where we need to take the next step to improve,” he said.

The second training is expected to be held in June 2009.

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