KIGALI - The Director General in Charge of Investment Climate and Intellectual Property in the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Kaliza Karuretwa, has said that the new business laws are very crucial towards improving the status of doing business in Rwanda.

She said this yesterday while addressing members of the Kigali business community on business law at the ministry’s headquarters in Kigali.

Karuretwa pointed out that the new business laws underline principles of transparency and accountability that are central if the country’s development goals are to be realized.

"These legal reforms are coming into force to support the country’s vision to become a modern united and prosperous nation founded on better environment of doing business,” she said.

The new business laws include, the law on intellectual property, the law establishing and organizing the real property valuation profession in Rwanda, law relating to electronic messages, signatures and transactions, law creating and organizing condominiums and setting up procedures for their registration and the law governing credit information system in Rwanda.

"We want to make sure that the business community understands those laws and how to apply them in order to improve on their businesses transaction,” she stressed.
Karuretwa said that before the enacting of the new laws in 2009, the business community was using laws of 1950’s and 1960,s and most of the laws were based on the colonial era.

She mentioned that, the new laws give freedom to women to do business which was contrary to Rwandan past and traditions where women had to ask for consent from their husbands to do business.

The business laws also have good news for minors aged 16, who have been granted the right to do business.

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