Rwanda 4th economically free in Africa, says report

A new report by Heritage Foundation titled; 2014 Index of Economic Freedom has ranked Rwanda the fourth economically free country in Africa after Mauritius, Botswana, and Cape Verde.Rwanda’s overall economic freedom score stands at 64.7 per cent, making its economy the 65th most free in the world.“Its score is 0.6 point better than last year, reflecting improvements in the management of government spending, business freedom, and labour freedom. Rwanda is ranked 4th out of 46 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, and its score exceeds the world average,” the report reads in part.The report pointed out that over the 20-year history of the Index, Rwanda has improved its economic freedom score by 26.4 points, the fifth-best increase of any country.Recording score improvements in nine out of the 10 economic freedoms, Rwanda has advanced from economic repression 20 years ago to a “moderately free” economy today, it says.Nonetheless, substantial challenges remain, according to the report, particularly in implementing deeper institutional and systemic reforms that are critical to strengthening the foundations of economic freedom.The progress is attributed to the wider process of economic liberalisation which allows everyone to operate any business freely, according to Francois Kanimba, the Minister for Trade and Industry.“Also, several financial facilities like easy access to loans have unlocked a number of potentials within the economic sector,” said the minister yesterday.“Our internal economic governance as well as entry into regional economic initiatives like trade partnerships with our neighbours has increased our performance in terms of economic freedom,” Kanimba added.Claver Gatete, the Minister for Finance, attributed Rwanda’s tremendous progress to the several economic reforms that have been undertaken.“We have made it easy for people to do business in Rwanda through creation of investment freedom, and fiscal freedom where we simplified the taxation policies by encouraging the use of electronic means to pay taxes,” Gatete said.“Under the monetary freedom, people no longer walk with cash. They use cards and we also have mobile phone banking. A well performing capital market has also contributed to our good performance,” Gatete added.He said Rwanda has achieved economic prosperity and freedom in just 20 years due to proper planning, visionary leadership and involving people in the planning process.“It’s not easy to build a vibrant economy in a country that started from scratch 20 years ago. There has also been other issues to handle like reconciling the people, dealing with effects of the Genocide and building institutions. Rwanda’s progress is a result of accountability and hardwork,” the Minister said.In the 2014 index of Economic Freedom, Rwanda’s score is higher than both the global average and that of its peers in the region which stands at 60.3per cent and 54.6per cent respectively.The index ranks countries with scores above 80 as “free”‚ those with scores between 70 and 80 as “mostly free”‚ those with scores between 60 and 70 as “moderately free”‚ and those with scores below 60 as “mostly unfree” or “repressed”.Rwanda fell in the category of moderately free economies.Within the East African Community, Uganda was next to Rwanda with a score of 59.9, making it the 91st freest economy in the world and 10th in the Sub-Saharan region.Tanzania and Kenya are the 15th and 17th in the Sub-Saharan region, while Burundi is ranked 31st and comes last in the EAC.Globally, Hong Kong topped the list with an overall score of 90.1 while North Korea scored 1.0 points making it the last on the table.The economic freedom report comes just months after that of World Bank’s Doing Business report that ranked Rwanda second best place to do business in Africa.The annual World Bank report, released in October last year assessed country-by-country performance in ease of doing business, indicated that, overall, Rwanda moved 22 places, to 32nd out of 189 countries globally.World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Index released in September last year, ranked Rwanda the 3rd most competitive economy in sub-Saharan Africa and the first in the EAC.Rwanda was ranked 63rd globally, maintaining the previous year’s position. Globally, Rwanda moved up seven places this year out of 144 countries surveyed compared to last year’s 70th position.

National

Rwanda 4th economically free in Africa, says report