Rwanda is among the world´s poorest nations, and it faces particular challenges in leveraging FDI for development. Foreign investment flows have been negligible since independence, and Rwanda missed out on the global surge in FDI flows to developing countries in the 1990s. Rwanda has nevertheless achieved remarkable political and social progress since 1994. It has become one Africa ´s countries with the highest degree of personal safety and lowest incidence of corruption. It has also started to rebuild its economy, and the Government is fully committed to building a peaceful, stable and prosperous nation through sustainable private sector led development. Much progress in reforming the investment climate has been achieved so far, even though much remains to be done.
The Investment Policy Review suggests three policy avenues to promote FDI and ensure that it contributes to achieving the national development goals:
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Turn Rwanda into a centre of excellence in soft infrastructure and governance.
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Develop a skills attraction and dissemination programme.
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Put in place focused strategic initiatives.
The presentation and peer review of the IPR on 3 October 2006 was attended by the Prime Minister of Rwanda, Hon. Bernard Makuza.
Since the IPR was published, UNCTAD has assisted the Government of Rwanda in a number of ways. It
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produced and recently updated an Investment Guide to Rwanda;
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prepared a strategy for the promotion of the industrial mining sector and FDI in the mining sector;
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drafted a model mining convention and provided support to draft decrees for implementation of the new Mining Code;
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trained the staff of the Rwanda Geology and Mines Authority on investment promotion, management and international mining investment;
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provided preliminary recommendations on the fiscal regime for mining investments and a more comprehensive investment promotion and investor targeting strategy;
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helped the Government to set up a skills attraction and dissemination programme as programmes to benchmark and monitor progress and performance;
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provided advisory services on the legal, regulatory and institutional reforms to make operational the new immigration policy;
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helped the Rwanda Investment and Export Promotion Agency prepare a client charter that includes programmes to benchmark and monitor progress and performance;
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contributed to easing the business permitting process through UNCTAD's eRegulations;
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conducted a study on investment flows and investment registration.
