COMMUNITY
Wake up and Smell
Rwanda’s Coffee!
by Darla Rudakubana
B
ordering Lake Kivu, just below the includes urban planning, an entrepreneurship there are high costs due to long haul land-
Equator, Rwanda’s lush vegetation in the private sector and fi nally, a modernised transport and air routes requiring reliance on
harbours over 700 bird species. agriculture and animal husbandry. administration and the infrastructures of its
In this warm environment, a variety of According to the United Nation and the neighbouring states of Tanzania and Kenya.
plants and fl owers fl ourish, including over International Chamber of Commerce (An To its detriment, Rwanda has the highest
100 species of exotic wild orchids! This Investment Guide to Rwanda, 2006), imported service costs in the East African
small landlocked country, with few natural Rwanda has investment opportunities region! Electricity is a prime example; not only
resources amidst its thousand hills, is now in every fi eld with many focusing on is it expensive but, because of its unreliable
attracting some of the biggest names in local markets and a few others abroad. nature, it has plagued Rwanda’s effi ciency,
business proving that their vision for the a big push factor for business people.
year 2020 is attainable! Rwanda offers The agricultural sector in Rwanda has opened
great opportunities to put up hotels, lodges up many opportunities for investors especially It cannot be argued that the genocide did little
,restaurants and other entertainment facilities. with the country’s main exports of tea and to improve the country’s infrastructure, which
coffee, an export product which was a few resulted in an immediate lack of investment and
Although the media images of April 1994, years ago unheard of! Today, its escalating maintenance. Rwanda was never abundantly
when men and women were slaughtered in value has placed the crop on the most wanted equipped with developmental skills to begin
a genocide between Tutsis and Hutus, was list by such companies as Starbucks and with, and the civil unrest drastically affected
sadly engraved in the minds of the world, Costco. Rwanda is the perfect location for the its professionals, bringing the legal system to
Rwanda is now regarded as free of corruption production of fi ne crops with the country’s a near halt. Human resources were damaged.
and a safe country with low levels of crime. elevation and climate, and is therefore a
Despite the brief but violent episode in their safe and ideal destination for investing in However, Rwanda’s Government has worked
country’s history, resilient Rwandans are no horticulture, fl oriculture and herbal products. tirelessly to eradicate these obstacles,
longer an unknown quantity, more recently resulting in the passing and revision of
having capitalised on the situation of negative Information and Communications Technology various laws, including new laws on Income
exposure by turning it into a positive. (ICT), is helping societies produce and Tax, and Customs and VAT which became
Rwanda is no longer an unknown entity! access information in greater quantities and operative in January 2006. Bills on Public
for wider purposes. To this end, the Rwandan Procurement and Intellectual Property
Tourism has proved to be a major area government has turned a keen eye on those Rights have been taken up by the Rwandan
of opportunity, which is mostly due investing in ICTs, which provides the country Parliament. In addition, a Business Law
to the sacred presence of the world’s with options other than industrialization. Commission and Law School have been
hairiest cousins within its borders, the ICTs are transforming Rwanda’s economy set up by the Government to improve the
few remaining but very famous mountain into one that is dependant on information quality of legal training. Most signifi cant of
gorillas in Virunga National Park! These and knowledge, a move which is hoped to all is the set up of the Rwanda Investment
rare species alone are greatly responsible provide the country with its own niche in the and Export Promotion Agency (RIEPA).
for shepherding a considerable amount competitive world. The Rwanda Development
of people towards Rwanda’s green hills! Gateway states that the penetration and Today, this minute land of a thousand hills
utilization of ICTs in several sectors of is proving to be the land of a thousand
The Rwandan Government has had the national economy will aid Rwanda in opportunities. The country as a whole,
tremendous success in securing peace and overcoming development challenges in with its above-mentioned additions, has
restoring the economy, thereby emanating areas such as education, health, governance started to transform itself, thus attracting
rays of light. Upon establishing its goals for and poverty reduction. Rwanda’s efforts decision-makers from around the world so
‘Vision 2020’ in the country, the government to develop itself are continuously proving that the country in general, is but minutes
has embarked on an upward journey to a to be successful, but painting too bright a away from shedding its poignant cocoon!
better GDP. By the year 2020, the country picture would be blinding the outsider, who
intends to have developed a credible and inevitably considers the other side of the coin. Many are reaching out to take part in Rwanda’s
effi cient state government, human resources exhilarating ride towards development, and
in line with the objectives of Rwanda in Like most African countries, Rwanda those who have not yet caught on are advised
achieving a prosperous knowledge-based is poor and bears diffi culties for foreign to wake up and start smelling (its) coffee!
economy, a basic infrastructure which investors. It is also landlocked, which means
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38 | THEPROMOTA www.thepromota.co.uk
ppromotamagazine_issue12.indd isabelle corrected.indd 38romotamagazine_issue12.indd isabelle corrected.indd 38 330/11/2007 21:50:060/11/2007 21:50:06
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