MINICOM, PSF launch National Business Forum, first edition
The Rwanda Private Sector Federation (PSF) in partnership with the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MINICOM) have launched a “National Business Forum”, the first of its kind held in Kigali on December 3, 2019.
The Forum themed ‘Building strong Partnerships for Made in Rwanda”, has brought together industrialists, service providers and policy makers to dialogue, network, share experiences on matters of policy direction and issues affecting Rwanda’s industrial competitiveness levels.
Participants discussed on addressing competitiveness patterns within Rwanda’s broad economic context, quality and standards to access market opportunities for “Rwandan made products”, mindset change on locally manufactured products and the need of research development and innovation for sustainable economic yields.
Currently, the Rwanda private sector remains uncompetitive as 98 per cent of firms are SMEs which struggle to survive. Also Rwanda is the 100 most competitive nation in the world out of 140 countries ranked in the 2018 edition of the Global Competitiveness Report published by the World Economic Forum, the PSF Chief Executive Officer, Ruzibiza Stephen has showed.
Reducing the cost of production, skills development and labor productivity, easing access to finance, improving access to factors of production and quality assurance are key in creating competitiveness, he added.
“The vision of our country is to have a national economy driven by the private sector. The Government of Rwanda has put in place specific strategies designed to attract investments in strategic sectors that can help stimulate the private sector for Rwanda’s development. The Made in Rwanda policy that we are implementing was designed with the purpose of courageously facing the long persisting challenge of trade deficit”, the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Hakuziyaremye Soraya has said.
She said, the Government will continue to support local industries and investors interested in producing anything that can help curb the trade deficit.
“The Government of Rwanda through RDB and MINICOM, MINICT, RSB, RFDA, NIRDA will continue to support existing industries in order for them to scale up, have innovative competitive products, access to the latest technology to satisfy the local demand and export Made in Rwanda brands”.
“Our goal is twofold; first boost exports but also pave the way for the consumption of locally-made products on the domestic market. Secondly, we want to see our youth trained in technical and managerial skills to create and run new companies the employment prospects of which will be creating new jobs out of increased production of goods.”
“Made in Rwanda works”
The average rate of expansion of the manufacturing sector has been at a greater rate after the Made in Rwanda campaign started, Minister Hakuziyaremye explained.
“In the three years prior to the campaign, manufacturing was stagnant at Rwf 323bn for two consecutive years (2011/2012 to 2013/2014). From 2015 onwards, we have seen an annual growth of 11% on average contributing RwF 510bn in the last fiscal year. Adding mining and the construction sector, the contribution of the industry sector to the GDP is RwF 1456bn, up 49% from 2015. Made-in-Rwanda works.”
“The yearly rate of export growth has risen since the start of the Made in Rwanda campaign in 2015. In the three years prior to Made in Rwanda, exports were increasing at an average rate of 11% whereas in the three years after the campaign started, the exports have risen at an average rate of 17%. So, Made in Rwanda works”, she emphasized.
The RDB Chief Executive Officer, Akamanzi Clare praises the achievements of Made in Rwanda initiative. “There’s a lot of progress with Made in Rwanda. I like to think of it like a plane that is past the take-off stage. We are now on the long path. The phones that ‘Mara Phone’ is selling today are Made in Rwanda, we have Made in Rwanda cars, we have electric motorbikes that are Made in Rwanda” she said.
The founder of Entreprise Urwibutso, Sina Gerard, said he is proud of Made in Rwanda brand as his diverse locally made products are being sold on local, African, European and American market.
Despite the great strides forward, there are still challenges that the Private Sector faces in promoting Made in Rwanda including cost of raw materials, high transportation costs, presence of non-tariff-barriers, shortfall of skilled labor needed for sophisticated production, limited electricity and water availability.
The National Business Forum assembled 700 participants from Rwanda, Kenya, Namibia, Zimbabwe, DRC, South Africa and USA.
By Kanamugire Emmanuel
