As part of the upcoming Made in Rwanda Expo, the Private Sector together with the Ministry of Trade and Industry have organised the first ever National Business Forum slated for December 3, which will discuss how increase production of locally made products, improving quality, branding and innovation among others. This was confirmed on Tuesday by Faustin Karasira, the Chief Operations Officer at the federation. It will bring together the private sector and other public and private institutions that are involved in the production process of Made in Rwanda products. Karasira was speaking at the press conference ahead of the fifth edition of the Made in Rwanda Expo, which will be held at Gikondo Expo Grounds starting Thursday, November 21 and will end on December 4. “This is the first time exhibitors from the film industry will participate in expo...we plan that every day, staff members of different institutions will be visiting the exhibition because we have learned that not all people know how good homemade products are,” he said. Over 400 exhibitors have so far been registered and according to Karasira, the number is expected to increase since there are other exhibitors on the waiting list. Some exhibitors, he said, have booked more than one or two stands. The showgrounds have 800 stands in total. The exhibitors come from different sectors; ICT, manufacturing, agro-processing, art and creative industry, among others. The Made In Rwanda campaign was initiated in 2015 and its policy went into force in 2018, and now it has a secretariat that monitors the campaign day today. Samuel Kamugisha, the Director-General of Industry and Entrepreneurship Department in the trade ministry explained that government is determined to ensure Made in Rwanda is a success. “There are incentives and different initiatives that help entrepreneurs, especially industries that operate in Rwanda, with much emphasis on three sectors; agro-processing, construction material manufacturing and textile and garments.” Made in Rwanda campaign was initiated to minimize trade deficit, and upscale local manufacturing. Statistics from the Ministry of Trade and Industry show that since the start of Made-in-Rwanda campaign in 2015, Rwanda’s total exports have increased by 69 per cent, from $559 million to $944 million in 2017 while total imports decreased by 4 per cent, from $1.849 billion in 2015 to $1.772 billion in 2017.
