Following last week’s signing of the East African Community (EAC) common market protocol by the EAC leaders, stakeholders in Rwanda are set to meet and share knowledge about the opportunities and challenges for Rwanda’s SMEs.

The one-day workshop slated for November, 26, 2009 is organised by the Rwanda Development Board (RDB), SNV Netherlands Development Organization and the Ministry of East African affairs.

"This event is timely as there are already numerous projects and programs planned to fast track Rwanda’s integration into the East African market,” a statement from RDB said.

According to the statement, this event will provide a platform for valuable input to a series of upcoming events and activities in the outreach to the private sector in Rwanda.

The knowledge exchange event seeks to share experiences, lessons learnt and best practices from stakeholders engaged in promoting access of Rwandan SMEs to the East African market that has an estimated population of 120 million people.

In turn, it is expected to enable Rwandan SMEs to seek and assess potentially unexploited opportunities with the opening of the East African market, especially in Agribusiness with special focus on beekeeping, coffee, and fruit processing as well as dairy.

The forum, which will attract both regional and local stakeholders, will encourage active participation of SMEs mainly from the agro-industry and food processing sectors.

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