Indian investors eye tourism sector

A delegation of Indian investors are in the country to assess the potential of tourism sector with a view to tap into the country’s highest revenue earner. According to Guldeep Singh Sahni, the president of Outband Tour Operations Association of India (OTOAI), Rwanda has good features and biodiversity that should interest many prospective investors into the tourism sector. “There are gorillas (mountain gorillas) that we have never seen in India. These gorillas can be the perfect attraction if we market tourism and open hotels in Rwanda,” he said. The delegation will also meet stakeholders in other sectors such as education and health and will tour the country’s national parks as part of the “Rwanda Calling 2015” campaign. “The investors are expected to act as ambassadors who will attract and encourage more investors into the country through sharing their firsthand account of the tourism potential of Rwanda,” said Yvette Umutoni, the head of investment promotion and facilitation at Rwanda Development Board (RDB). This is the third edition of ‘Rwanda Calling’. Indians have invested in various sectors such as education, notable among them the opening of a local campus of Mahatma Gandhi University. Skills exchange According to Varun Gupta, the branch has contributed to Rwanda’s education with 100 scholarships being provided, 75 per cent of them to survivors of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. More scholarships will also be provided via Imbuto Foundation. Health is also one of the sectors of exchange programmes with India’s SevenHills Hospital due to train 48 nurses from various hospitals over the next year. Emmanuel Dushimiyimana, a nurse from Butaro Hospital in Northern Province who benefited from an exchange programme last month, said in June, three nurses from Butaro Hospital went to India for a one-month training in cancer treatment, renal testing, cardiovascular and urgency reanimation. “We learnt a lot but we wish that there can be a branch of one of the cardiovascular treatment hospitals in the country to facilitate the treatment of many suffering from heart attacks who are impeded by the high cost of medical treatment in India,” he said. Figures by RDB indicate that registered investments from Indians over the last three years are worth over $113 million, cutting across key economic sectors such as mining, manufacturing and education. Trade between the two countries has also increased from $34 million in 2010 to $153 million in 2014, especially in commodities such as horticulture products, pharmaceuticals and machinery.

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Indian investors eye tourism sector