Gov’t ‘committed to growth of private sector’

Government supports the growth of the private sector as one of the key pillars that promotes social economic development, Clare Akamanzi, the Chief Operations Officer at Rwanda Development Board (RDB) told Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) students.She made the remarks while meeting MIT Masters of Business Administration (MBA) Students at Telecom House in Kigali.A delegation of 22 scholars from MIT is in the country for a week to learn about sustainable social-entrepreneurship impact.“The government has a vision of creating a private sector driven economy that will not only generate wealth but also create jobs,” Akamanzi explained.“We believe that investors create many jobs and opportunities for Small Medium Enterprises (SME’s) in terms of forward and backward linkages.”Akamanzi briefed the students about the country’s vision 2020 targets and what has been achieved so far like poverty reduction, infrastructure developments among others.She also talked about how the country is targeting to move from agricultural to a knowledge based economy by 2020.To further stimulate private sector growth, Akamanzi underscored that government invested heavily in infrastructure including completing the national fibre-optic cable that will enable Rwandans to be innovative through utilising the broadband infrastructure.Last year, the government laid 2,300 kilometres optic fibre cable across the country that is expected to enhance the ICT industry by facilitating IT-based foreign direct investments in areas such as business outsourcing.Speaking to The SundayTimes, Vanessa Mendoza, one of the students said they decided to come for a study tour in Rwanda because there is so much going on in terms of social and economic development.“We are, particularly, interested to see how the government is really supporting the growth of entrepreneurs and how they are changing the environment,” she said.Mendoza pointed out that Rwanda is a great place to start business and investors should come and invest in areas that have not been fully exploited.