The German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) and the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MINICOM), yesterday signed a Memorandum of Understanding, outlining their mutual cooperation to empower the private sector in order to boost economic development in the next three years.

The Minister of Trade and Industry, Monique Nsanzabaganwa signed on behalf of government while GTZ’s Program Manager, Thomas Bedenbecker, signed on behalf of his organisation.

Nsanzabaganwa said that the objective of the partnership is to focus on capacity development in policy analysis and policy formulation, whereby GTZ will provide training to technical staff at the ministry and its agencies.

"On top of jointly establishing an Economic and Trade Atlas for Rwanda, our partnership with GTZ will also provide assistance in further development of doing business plus (DB+) method, through which the framework for business reform monitoring and impact assessment will be improved,” Nsanzabaganwa said.

She also said that the new concept of impact analysis would efficiently analyze the cost and benefit of trade and business regulations and thus promote private companies and small market enterprises.

According to Bedenbecker, GTZ has invested 1.5 million Euros to support the partnership during its first two years of operation.

"Within the three years, GTZ will provide consultants to set up and analyze private sector data, especially in trade, investment, industry and services, which is expected to develop the capacity of data collection and analysis for quality policy decision making,” Bedenbecker said.

GTZ’s support comes under the framework of its program, "Promotion of Economy and Employment in Rwanda,” which is co-financed by the German and the Netherlands governments.

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