Internet connection: what is Rwanda’s niche?

Released recently, “The Atlas of Economic Complexity”, looks at the rankings of countries based on the amount of knowledge embedded in the products they produce and export. With this information they look, in part, at the potential for economic growth, from the historical through the year 2020.Of particular interest to Rwanda is the projections of GDP growth for countries in sub-Saharan Africa in general and, in particular, Rwanda’s neighbours that, by 2020, on a global scale, will rank high; Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya. The rankings of GDP growth are based on products and services provided from these countries stripped from other measures that might impact on that calculation such as dependence on external development support. This analysis places Rwanda at the bottom of the list of all countries, globally. In an increasingly Internet connected world, this becomes very important. It is well known that knowledge is increasingly fungible (can be purchased) and mobile across geo-political boundaries. Thus countries with a strong knowledge base can offer incentives to increasingly attract new knowledge. The recent conference held in Kigali on ICT, information and communications technologies, makes it very clear that interconnectivity is a two edged sword, one that can, instantaneously, shift knowledge flow toward a more advantageous market. This makes it most important for Rwanda to carefully assess its competitive advantage in order to drive knowledge to and retain that developed in Rwanda.It is clear that the complexity of knowledge in emergent products and services means that a single country cannot equally welcome and support all the increasing range of opportunities. Yes, one can list all the benefits that exist within a geo-political boundary. But, an analysis of the “Atlas” clearly notes that the less complex these capacities are the more countries exist that can compete on an equal or better footing. Unskilled labour is the paradigmatic example, where manufacturers can easily move simple assembly facilities from one country to another with slight changes in profitability, including costs of labour. Basic materials such as agricultural commodities, minerals, energy and even infrastructure such as transport and high speed Internet, while important, aren’t sufficient to create a singular competitive advantage. Rwanda is highly dependent on foreign aid. Because the Atlas measures GDP by the number and complexity of a country’s products/services, the extent of that dependence should become clear when the past, current and future growth, is measured by backing out this support from the GDP calculations and projections from a knowledge-imbedded product and service matrix. This makes it increasingly important to focus those soft funds where there is the greatest competitive advantage for the country.There is increasing discussion between Rwanda and its neighbours on collaborative economic efforts. Perhaps it is even more important for the neighbours to look collectively at the region’s competitive advantages and to amplify efforts where there is synergy. Given the aforementioned ability of knowledge to move easily across geo-political boundaries, soft development funds accessible to one country, if judiciously allocated, might leverage options when applied across those increasingly permeable boundaries.The key is the defining of competitive advantages of each country and where these may leverage opportunities for all. Dr. Abeles is editor of the Foresight Journal, a former tenured academic in energy and environment; he is currently in Kigali on international consultancy.