Rwanda tops EAC as best business haven - IFC-WB

KIGALI - Rwanda is East Africa’s best destination for investment, says a new report released by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the World Bank. The report shows areas where individual economies in the East African Community (EAC) shine, an, notes that reforms make Rwanda one of the fastest places in the world to start a business. It is followed by Kenya, Uganda Tanzania and Burundi respectively. Securing credit is very straightforward in Kenya, and Tanzania ranks well in enforcing contracts. The survey further notes the bloc’s economies continue to improve but still have a long way to go. Reacting to the survey, Rwanda Development Board’s Chief Operations Officer, Claire Akamanzi, noted that critical barriers remain in time and cost of liquidating a business, and difficulties in cross-border trade, however they are being addressed. “We must first of all note that according to that report, Rwanda is in the first position in EAC in the ease of doing business. This is in recognition of the depth and breadth of business reforms that we continue to implement,” “When it comes to liquidating or insolvency, Rwanda is ranked as a ‘no practice’ country because there weren’t enough insolvency cases in court,” “However, since we passed the insolvency law in 2009, we have already seen about 10 cases in court so the landscape is changing for the better” She stressed that trading across borders is a challenge because Rwanda is a landlocked country. “This increases the cost of importing and exporting as we have to go through Uganda to Mombasa where the bulk of our goods come through” “To mitigate this, we are working with the rest of EAC to streamline procedures, eliminate non-tariff barriers and build regional infrastructure. This, we believe, will improve trading across borders,” Akamanzi said. The IFC- World Bank report takes a close look at business regulations in each EAC country and highlights that the region has pockets of good practices that if adopted by all EAC countries, could yield a very healthy business environment. Ends

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Rwanda tops EAC as best business haven - IFC-WB