Rwanda registers progress in competitiveness index

For the fifth year running, Rwanda has registered positive progress on the Global Competitiveness, a new report by the World Economic Forum shows. The 2015/16 report, published this week, places Rwanda in the 58th position globally and 3rd on the continent after Mauritius and South Africa. The report assesses the competitiveness landscape of global economies, and provides insights into countries’ productivity and prosperity drivers. Specifically, this year’s edition found a correlation between highly competitive countries and those that have either withstood the global economic crisis or made a swift recovery from it. The authors of the report documented Rwanda’s improvement in seven out of 12 pillars. “It has improved in business sophistication and financial markets with confidence increased by improved regulation of securities exchanges and the degree to which collateral and bankruptcy laws protect the rights of borrowers and lenders,” the report reads in part. It also recognises the strong public and private institutions, efficient markets, flexible labour market and high female participation in the labour force as factors that had propelled the growth witnessed. In the previous year’s report (2014/15), Rwanda ranked 62nd overall and third on the continent behind South Africa and Mauritius, while the 2013/14 report placed Rwanda at 66 overall. A closer analysis of the indicators considered by the report over the years reveals that Rwanda’s improvement has been facilitated by well functioning institutions, government’s non-tolerance policy on corruption, secure environment and the development of the financial markets. The report looked beyond the size of ranked economies to specifically point out potential, productivity and drivers. Analysts say by ignoring the size of the economy, the report did justice to smaller economies as it considered potential and ongoing efforts to make their economies attractive. Experts welcome report Teddy Kaberuka, a Kigali-based independent economic analyst, told Saturday Times that by looking beyond the size of the economies, the report gave a true picture of what was likely to take place in the coming days. Kaberuka said, for Rwanda, the 12 indicators further indicated that “the positive work by the government to improve the business environment in recent years, were bearing fruits.” “Such independent reports are good because they improve investor confidence in the market,” she said. Although most prospective investors conduct their own independent analysis, Kaberuka said such positive rankings easily capture the interest of corporations with plans of expanding. “Over the last few years, we have seen positive rankings by various indexes and consequently we have seen a surge in interest in Rwanda by major corporations and investors. It is likely that the trend will continue,” she said. The government is upbeat about the index as recognition of the ongoing efforts to better the business climate. Speaking to Saturday Times, recently, Francis Gatare, the chief executive of Rwanda Development Board, said such reports reflected the government’s efforts to improve the country’s business climate. In July, Foreign Policy Magazine’s Global Profitability Index, placed Rwanda 8th globally in terms of profitability of emerging enterprises.

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Rwanda registers progress in competitiveness index