Business community benefits from regional tour

The country’s business community is expected to increase its competitiveness at the regional and global scene after completion of study tours within the region. The tour was organised by the Private Sector Federation, A group of five traders in agro-processing industry were in Uganda and Kenya for a period of seven days to learn from their counterparts in the two countries. “These two countries are far ahead in terms of agro-processing business and we hope the team’s tour of various factories and experiences shared will impact their performance,” said Yvette Mukarwema, the Acting Chief Executive Officer of PSF. According to Mukarwema, participants were selected from all the provinces. The programme is part of PSF’s capacity building policy. “We hope that by early next year we will have a clear calendar for the whole year with a list of priority sectors and countries to visit,” she promised. A consultant will be hired to identify priority areas that should be in line with government priority areas of development including finance, information technology, agro-processing and tourism. “These will be looked into, because we can not go with member needs and forget that government is targeting the micro-industry,” she said. A similar business tour, involving six people selected from the construction, tourism and manufacturing sectors, concurrently toured Mauritius with the objective of promoting business partnerships between two countries. “We hope Rwanda will benefit from the lessons learnt. Mauritius is a middle-income country and it’s known for its unique tourism products,” said Leon Pierre Rusanganwa, the facilitator of the trip. During the trip, the group held meetings with people in different sectors including, agriculture, ICT, energy, tourism, financial institutions and commerce and services. “Rwanda has a lot to learn from Mauritius, like a developed textile industry and a tourism strategy that was developed and enhanced,” Rusanganwa said. Edwin Sebuhoro, the Chairman of Rwanda Tourism Chamber, said they have already established a network involving tour operators, students and investors to enhance the country’s tourism sector. “The immediate lesson that we think can be replicated is the linkage between tourism and the private sector and the tourism training programme that is based on quality and not quantity where everyone is trained,”said Sebuhoro. gertrude.majyambere@newtimes.co.rw

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Business community benefits from regional tour