2010 was another successful year for Rwanda Development Board, which started with very ambitious but achievable targets of promoting the government’s vision of creating a private sector driven economy that will enable Rwanda to become a leading destination for investments. Various milestones were registered as outlined below;

• Doing Business:

  • According to the 2010 World Bank Doing Business Report, Rwanda was once again among top ten global reformers coming up as second global reformer out of 183 countries. Rwanda is the 9^th easiest place to start a business in the world and the 6^th most competitive economy in Sub-Saharan Africa according to the 2010 World Economic Forum global Competitiveness Report.

  • 24hour cross border trade operations between Rwanda, and Uganda, DR Congo and Burundi have been made possible with the harmonization of the Customs procedures with the EAC customs Union Act

  • A one stop construction permit centre has been established at the Nyarugenge district offices to ease construction process and ensure the time prescribed by the client charter is respected. Average time has reduced from 210 days to less than 30 days to obtain a construction permit.

  • Improvements to the public credit registry have been implemented widening the data to cover 2 years of credit information and incorporate information on utilities.

Business and Investments Registered

• 105 Investment projects were registered and will generate 381M US$ in 2010 of which FDI is estimated at 173M USD while Local Investments are estimated at 208M US$. These will create 12,736 jobs.

• A One (1) procedure carried out in one (1) day for registering businesses has been implemented and Online business registration is now operational. A company may be incorporated remotely or abroad without necessarily coming to RDB.

• 6,207 companies were registered compared to 5,808 that were registered in 2009. Key investment projects in the pipeline include the reputable global hospitality brand of Marriott and Hilton group of Hotels.

• Rwanda organized for the first time the Agribusiness conference that attracted over 100 participants and 10 deals were pledged.

• RDB in collaboration with the Commonwealth Business Council (CBC) organized the Rwanda Investment Forum from in May 2010 acted 200 participants

• RDB in collaboration with Rwandan High commission in India organized a Road show to India that attracted over 20 inward missions, delegations/ individual companies including signing an MoU with Universal Empire Infrastructures (UEIL) Ltd that pledged to invest over 250 million USD projects in Eastern province Bugesera district where the will set up a knowledge hub and integrated food processing park next to the proposed new airport

Tourism

• Rwanda hosted 666,000visitors who generated US$ 200M which is a 14% increase compared to revenues generated in 2009.

• On 15th October 2010, a Canopy walk in Nyungwe National Park, which is the first of its kind in Eastern Africa was launched and will provide a cutting edge to visitors that experience the park from a new vantage point from 60 meters above ground. A unique interactive interpretation centre was unveiled in Nyungwe and is now operational.

• On the international scene, Rwanda was voted best African exhibitor in ITB Berlin the largest tourism trade fair in the World for the 4^th time in a row

• Conservation: Over 50 projects worth 305 Million Frw was disbursed towards development of community projects around parks from the annual Revenue Sharing Scheme which grants 5% of park revenues towards supporting community projects. In 2011, other 49 projects worth 202M Frw will be funded towards improving community welfare

• A Gorilla Census conducted in April 2010 in the Virunga Massif confirms a 26.3 % increase in the population of mountain gorillas, Gorilla beringei beringei, in this area over the last seven years, with a 3.7 % annual growth rate

IT

Significant development has been registered in the areas of ICT infrastructure, capacity building, and public sector service delivery using ICTs. The following are some of the highlights:

• Rollout of over 2,300Km of fiber optic cable around the country including cross-border fiber installation at Uganda and Tanzania borders has been completed. This infrastructure will provide access to affordable, high–speed internet connectivity as well as enhancing efficient service delivery in public and private sectors. 69% of central government institutions connected to fiber in Kigali have been migrated to Kigali Metropolitan Network (KMN) and are operational.

• E-Soko: This is an Agricultural Market Information System that has been deployed to provide farmers with reliable, up-to-date market price information.

• ICT Training: More than 5,000 people in rural areas were trained on different ICT skills using ICT buses and Telecenters facilities.

• Completion of e-Archiving project that aimed at setting up required infrastructure for storage facilities of digital content at Kigali Memorial Center (KMC). With the support of several partners, KMC archives are now available online.

• Development of an eParliament system that facilitates management of all documents and automation of processes within Parliament.

Human Capacity and Institutional Development (HCID)

• The Rwanda Youth Internship Program was successfully implemented and a total of 785 fresh graduates were placed in various public and private institutions within the country and very few abroad (India and USA).

• In partnership with MINIYOUTH and districts, 1480 youths in 6 districts were trained in 2 modules in introduction to entrepreneurship and business plan elaboration. Trainings were conducted for 18 Career Advisory Center managers.

Trade and Manufacturing

• Exports increased by 23.8 % in 2010 compared to the year 2009. Registered exports in 2010 are estimated at 454,457,389 US$ compared to 366,875,035 US$ generated in 2009. Tourism dominated with 44.0 % of total exports, followed by Mining and Coffee with 14.9 % and 12.3 % respectively.

• Imports recorded in 2010 indicate a 11.4 % increase compared to 2009. Registered imports in 2010 are estimated at 1,389,382,945 US$ compared to 1,246,813,601 US$ registered in 2009.

• Other achievements include promotion of products of 40 local companies internationally, introduction of up of 30 operational Business Development Centers (BDCs) in 30 Districts that have facilitated training for 400 entrepreneurs trained in business planning and ICT training for 270 District staff and 450 women in 28 Districts.

• 180 SMEs and cooperatives were selected for support through BDCs to access finance from the Business Development Fund and from RIF.

Major Events concluded

• Kwita Izina was another major success-with 14 baby gorillas given names as part of the celebration of the World Environment day on June 5^th 2010. The event attracted hundreds of international visitors including renowned Hollywood film star Don Cheadle, scores of top government officials, thousands of Rwandans and hundreds of international media.

• FESPAD was successfully organized for the first time by RDB from July 24^th-31^st 2010. A number of concerts countrywide were well attended with over 200,000fans in participation attracting renowned artists like Grammy Award Winner Lauryn Hill, Mike E, Afroflow and over 10 the region’s best artists.

• RDB Awards: RDB held the annual Business Excellence awards for the second time to recognize the achievement of businesses, individuals and SME’s that made an outstanding contribution to Rwanda’s economic growth with new categories introduced notably; Business friendly district and Woman Entrepreneur of the year.

Looking forward to 2011, RDB has raised the bar to even greater heights focusing generating tourism revenues estimated at 216MUSD and attracting investment projects worth 550M USD. Among the strategies in place to achieve the mentioned targets includes attracting investment from new economic power houses such as Asia as well as incorporating more regulatory and legal reforms that support the private sector growth.

For further information, please email us at pr@rdb.rw or visit our website at www.rdb.rw