## Q&A Interview: Inside Rwanda’s Thriving Private Sector – IMF F&D ## Source details **Canonical URL:** [Q&A Interview: Inside Rwanda’s Thriving Private Sector – IMF F&D](https://www.imf.org/en/publications/fandd/issues/2019/06/private-sector-development-in-rwanda-trenches) ## Other formats - [Markdown version](/en/publications/fandd/issues/2019/06/private-sector-development-in-rwanda-trenches/index.md) - [Structured JSON version](/en/publications/fandd/issues/2019/06/private-sector-development-in-rwanda-trenches/index.json) - [Bundle manifest](/en/publications/fandd/issues/2019/06/private-sector-development-in-rwanda-trenches/bundle-manifest.json) ## Bibliographic details - Published: June 1, 2019 --- ### Role of the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) - Vision: "to transform Rwanda into a dynamic global hub for business, investment, and innovation." - Mandate: - Promote investments and exports. - Provide services covering a range of issues faced by the business community: negotiating contracts with the private sector, helping investors to secure concessions, and settling disagreements. - Manage privatization of government assets and tourism promotion, including national parks. - Outcome: Since RDB’s establishment in 2009, doing business in Rwanda has become easier and the private sector has contributed more to economic growth. ### Key quantitative findings and indicators - Aid reliance: "About 25 years ago, we were 100 percent reliant on aid, but today we are 86 percent self-reliant, which means that we depend on aid for only about 14 percent of our budget." - Jobs: "On average, the private sector now creates about 38,000 jobs per year." - Ease of Doing Business rankings: - "29th easiest place to do business in the world and the second in Africa." - "A few years ago, we were ranked at 150." - Earlier phrasing: RDB recently won "the #2 spot regionally in the World Bank’s ease of doing business rankings." - Company registration: - You can "register a company in six hours." - Annual registrations rose from "about 500 companies" to "about 13,000 companies a year." - Investment flows: - "Last year, by the time we closed our investment books, we had registered $2 billion worth of investments." - In 2010, registered investments were "$318 million." - Specific projects and private-sector activities: - "Volkswagen is assembling in Rwanda." - "Positivo ... is assembling laptops." - "Andela ... is going to train about 700 local programmers." - "A company that has begun refining our coltan." - Costs and barriers: - Legal document cost: estimated "about $400" for articles and memoranda of association. - Tourism segment: MICE "is already accounting for about 10 percent of our tourism receipts." ### Reforms and interventions to improve the business environment - Focused sector strategy with Ministry of Economic Planning to identify sectors needing private-sector engagement and able to generate wealth and jobs. - Concrete reforms implemented to simplify: - Starting a business. - Registering property. - Filing taxes and accessing tax-related information. - Digital solutions used to automate processes (example: business registration automation). - Policy trade-off example: - Eliminated requirement for articles and memoranda of association to reduce start-up costs and barriers, recognizing short-term costs to some private actors (e.g., lawyers) for longer-term private-sector growth. ### Enabling factors: political will and leadership - High-level support: - "The Cabinet, a related steering committee, and the president himself have taken an avid interest" in reforms. - President Kagame "has made himself available to us." - Political backing allowed removal of entrenched steps that imposed costs, enabling scale-up from about 500 to about 13,000 annual company registrations. ### Challenges constraining private-sector development - Landlocked status: "The high cost of transportation, especially for imported goods, is evident in almost every sector of the economy." - Overall cost of doing business remains high: need to reduce costs of financing, energy, and infrastructure. - Structural issues persist despite reductions in red tape. ### Strategies and sector positioning to mitigate constraints - Position Rwanda as a knowledge and services hub to minimize reliance on transport-intensive sectors. - Promote leisure tourism (e.g., mountain gorillas) and develop MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions) to boost tourism receipts and make Rwanda a hub for regional and global events. - Invest in service-based sectors to address disadvantages from being landlocked. *Q&A Interview: Inside Rwanda’s Thriving Private Sector – IMF F&D* --- ## Content in this bundle - **الانفتاح أمام الأعمال** - [الانفتاح أمام الأعمال (Markdown version)](/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2019/june/ar/akamanzi.pdf.md){rel="alternate" type="text/markdown"} - [الانفتاح أمام الأعمال (PDF)](/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2019/june/ar/akamanzi.pdf){rel="external" type="application/pdf"} - **Entrevista: El éxito del sector privado en Rwanda – F&D del FMI** - [Entrevista: El éxito del sector privado en Rwanda – F&D del FMI (Markdown version)](/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2019/june/es/private-sector-development-in-rwanda-trenches.pdf.md){rel="alternate" type="text/markdown"} - [Entrevista: El éxito del sector privado en Rwanda – F&D del FMI (PDF)](/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2019/june/es/private-sector-development-in-rwanda-trenches.pdf){rel="external" type="application/pdf"} - **Séance de questions : les racines du secteur privé florissant du Rwanda – F&D FMI** - [Séance de questions : les racines du secteur privé florissant du Rwanda – F&D FMI (Markdown version)](/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2019/june/fr/private-sector-development-in-rwanda-trenches.pdf.md){rel="alternate" type="text/markdown"} - [Séance de questions : les racines du secteur privé florissant du Rwanda – F&D FMI (PDF)](/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2019/june/fr/private-sector-development-in-rwanda-trenches.pdf){rel="external" type="application/pdf"} - **Open for Business - June 2019 | FINANCE & DEVELOPMENT | International Monetary Fund** - [Open for Business - June 2019 | FINANCE & DEVELOPMENT | International Monetary Fund (Markdown version)](/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2019/june/private-sector-development-in-rwanda-trenches.pdf.md){rel="alternate" type="text/markdown"} - [Open for Business - June 2019 | FINANCE & DEVELOPMENT | International Monetary Fund (PDF)](/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2019/june/private-sector-development-in-rwanda-trenches.pdf){rel="external" type="application/pdf"} - **На передовой – Финансы и развитие – июнь 2019 года** - [На передовой – Финансы и развитие – июнь 2019 года (Markdown version)](/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2019/june/ru/private-sector-development-in-rwanda-trenches.pdf.md){rel="alternate" type="text/markdown"} - [На передовой – Финансы и развитие – июнь 2019 года (PDF)](/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2019/june/ru/private-sector-development-in-rwanda-trenches.pdf){rel="external" type="application/pdf"} - **商业开放 - 前 沿 - 金融与发展 - 国际货币基金组织季刊** - [商业开放 - 前 沿 - 金融与发展 - 国际货币基金组织季刊 (Markdown version)](/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2019/june/zh/private-sector-development-in-rwanda-trenches.pdf.md){rel="alternate" type="text/markdown"} - [商业开放 - 前 沿 - 金融与发展 - 国际货币基金组织季刊 (PDF)](/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2019/june/zh/private-sector-development-in-rwanda-trenches.pdf){rel="external" type="application/pdf"} --- _Source: https://www.imf.org/en/publications/fandd/issues/2019/06/private-sector-development-in-rwanda-trenches_