KIGALI - Discussions in this year’s government and Development Partners’ Meeting (DPM) scheduled to begin November 4 will focus on issues such as removing bottlenecks and innovative financing for private sector development.

According to a draft programme seen by The New Times, the 2010 DPM will be held under the theme: "Effective Aid to leverage Private Investments and the Millennium Development Goals.”

The purpose of this year’s theme and the objective of the 2010 DPM is to come up with concrete actions to address constraints to aid effectiveness and develop a strategy to enhance synergies between aid and private investment to attain the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Ronald Nkusi, an official in the Ministry of Finance, on Friday outlined key constraints to the private sector, among them; access and affordability of credit, over collateralization and high equipment costs, high costs of borrowing and infrastructure constraints.

Low technical capacity and low business skills as well as the limited functioning of the Rwanda Capital Markets Authority, are other constraints.

"The government is putting in place a policy to address constraints of capacity by guiding interventions aimed at improving access to finance by businesses,” Nkusi said.
Initiated in 1995, the DPM is a biennial strategic forum for policy dialogue between the government and its development partners and allows government to showcase its major achievements as well as constraints in implementing its development plans. It is also an occasion for open discussion with regards to the management of external development assistance.

About 300 "senior level delegates – high-level government representatives, UN agencies and international organizations – are expected to attend.

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