The second edition of Build Expo was opened on Wednesday May 23rd by the Minister of Infrastructure, Hon. Ambassador Claver Gatete, at the Kigali Convention Centre.  The event attracted a number of distinguished guests from all walks of life including ambassadors from other countries, foreign ministers, members of the public and private sector and media. The Regional Marketing Director, Duncan Njaye, gave a brief history of Expo Group and said the company started its operations in 1996 with export-oriented international trade exhibitions in the Middle East and East Africa. The company has been able to organize a total of fourteen annual trade fairs in the region and also presented several other events in emerging markets in Africa, China, Australia, India, and Latin America. Minister Gatete commended the work done by Expo Group. ‘’We have just visited different exhibitions and you can see that they touch almost all sectors in Rwanda. I have seen the technologies for energy, construction, water and housing and many other things that will benefit this country that’s moving very fast when it comes to construction,’’ he said. It was also noted by the Minister that Rwanda’s GDP increases by 10% every year and for Rwanda to sustain this there is a need for new technologies, new partners and new friends to make sure that there is growth at a cheaper cost. He thanked the organizers for having brought the services and products closer to the people. ‘’The rate of urbanization, which is currently at 20%, is...

Rwanda has been admitted a member of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Development Center as its 55th member during the OECD Forum currently taking place in Paris, France. Rwanda’s accession was announced during the 5th High Level Meeting of the OECD Development Center Governing Board.. Established in 1961, the OECD Development Center is an independent platform for knowledge sharing and policy dialogue between Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development member countries and developing economies to allow nations to interact on an equal footing. Accepting Rwanda’s membership, Trade and Industry Minister Soraya Hakuziyaremye said Rwanda’s accession reflects its development path. “On behalf of the Government and people of Rwanda, I wish to convey our appreciation to the OECD Secretariat, as well as the OECD Development Centre teams who have worked with us for four years to ensure Rwanda’s membership. This is a testimony to our transformational development path, our commitment to sharing the lessons learned, and our willingness to enhance cooperation with other member States, while accessing best practices of development from other OECD members,” she said. According to Minister Hakuziyaremye, “Working with and within the Development Center will allow Rwanda to participate and contribute to evidence-based policy dialogue, in particular in reviewing and designing key policies and reforms in terms of youth employment, increasing our tax base, enhancing the role of our private sector and reviewing our industrial policy.” Rwanda applied to join the OECD Center in November 2018. It is the first member from the East African...

The 45th East African Community Consultative Meeting aimed at improving Air Transport in the region was held in in Naivasha, Kenya. The EAC Consultative meeting on facilitation of Air Transport is a forum for discussion on issues that affect air transport in the region in order to comply with Annex 9 (Air Transport Facilitation) and Annex 17 (Aviation Security) of the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation. The meeting refers to the ICAO international standards and recommended practices and proposes appropriate recommendations to be implemented by the Partner States at the various EAC international Airports.  It is hosted by EAC Partner States, twice a year on rotational basis. Addressing the delates from the EAC Partner States, the Principal Secretary in the Republic of Kenya’s State Department of Transport, Ministry of Transport, Infrastructure, Housing, Urban Development and Public Works, Ms. Esther Koimett underscored the importance of EAC Air Transport facilitation forum in ensuring the smooth movement of passengers, goods and aircrafts at all EAC international airports. The Principal Secretary urged Partner States to continuously respond to emerging challenges in order to cope with aviation and non-aviation demands as well as strive to meet international standards. She reminded the participants that Air transport plays a key role in the promotion of trade, tourism and economic growth of the region. “Air Transport facilitation is an important aspect of aviation and the EAC airports have to continuously enhance capacity of existing infrastructure to be able to cope with future aviation demands, meet international requirements and...

The Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) is losing out business from tea firms because of the exorbitant transport rates from Nairobi to Mombasa. Tea firms, especially the multinationals, have now opted to use road in transporting millions of kilos of tea arguing that it is 60 percent cheaper than using the train. The move is likely to further complicate the loan repayment for the SGR. Apollo Kiarii, the chief executive of Kenya Tea Growers Association (KTGA), said the last mile connectivity involved in transportation of the tea and the revised cargo rates have made the use of SGR too expensive. “We have reached a point whereby we have decided to abandon the use of SGR because it does not make any economic sense to us given its expensive nature,” said Mr Kiarii. Source: Business Daily

Issues like negotiations on key instruments and more ratification numbers have to be achieved for effective implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement, Rwandan experts told Xinhua recently, as the African Union (AU) Commission set a time frame to activate the AfCFTA agreement on May 30. According to the AU, the remaining work for the AfCFTA is for the AU and African ministers of trade to finalize work on supporting instruments to facilitate the launch of the operational phase of the AfCFTA during an extra-ordinary heads of state and government summit on July 7. These instruments include rules of origin, schedules of tariff concessions on trade in goods, online non-tariff barriers monitoring and elimination mechanism, digital payments and settlement platform and African Trade Observatory Portal. Permanent Secretary of Rwanda's Ministry of Trade and Industry Michel Minega Sebera said the implementation can't be effective before negotiations on some key implementing instruments, including rules of origin and tariff concessions are completed. Despite the fact that the required 22 ratifications for the AfCFTA agreement to enter into force have been reached, the rest of African countries should join for its effective implementation, said Sebera, who is also an expert in international trade and development industry. Nigeria, Africa's largest economy, has so far opted not to ratify the agreement. Over 50 percent of the continent's cumulative GDP are contributed by Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa, while Africa's six sovereign island nations collectively contribute just 1 percent, according to reports. African countries...

African policy makers, Regional Economic Communities, African business leaders and others are set to hold a two-day policy dialogue in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to map out a strategy for successful implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA). The May 27-28 policy dialogue is co-organised by the AU and the Coalition for Dialogue on Africa (CoDA), a 10-year old development platform for discussions and reflections, for stakeholders to map out a strategy for implementation of trade agreement and therefore lead to the realization of Africa’s aspiration enunciated in Agenda 2063. AGENDA 2063 is Africa’s blueprint and master plan for transforming the continent into the global powerhouse of the future. A concept note on the upcoming policy dialogue indicates that: “The planned policy dialogue will further enhance stakeholder engagement on the implementation of the AfCFTA.” It also aims to: build knowledge and expertise of all stakeholders on priority trade issues of the AfCFTA; improve regular information flow on trade issues to key stakeholders, and suggest a framework for the establishment of AfCFTA national committees; and improve co-ordination among relevant government ministries and agencies including through clear mandates and assigning of responsibilities. Improving the participation opportunities for stakeholders in the work programme of the AfCFTA; and strengthening the culture of dialogue and inclusiveness, are the other specific goals of the policy dialogue. The AfCFTA was first signed by African leaders on March 21, 2018, in Kigali. Among other benefits, experts estimate that the AfCFTA will increase intra-African trade by over 50...

Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) has launched a partnership with global technology firm mPedigree to improve the agro-inputs protection technology among its members. The partnership, launched under the COMESA Alliance for Commodity Trade in Eastern and Southern Africa (ACTESA) Seed programme, will help the bloc to eliminate faking and counterfeiting of agro-inputs materials like seeds and fertiliser among its member states. This move promises a deeper penetration into the supply chains and access to new ecosystem support for Kenya, where the technology is already in use. “The system will assist the region to not only eliminate cases of fake agro-inputs such as seeds, fertilisers and crop protection products, but also boost trade in quality and improved certified seed,” said Serlom Branttie, mPedigree Global Strategy Director. Fraudulent trade in fake agro-inputs has greatly contributed to the poor performance of over 80 million small-scale farmers and to food insecurity in the region. Source: Media Max

The ambitious African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) which technically enters into force on 30 May could be the game changer for Africa’s hitherto lacklustre economy. Driven by Rwandan President Paul Kagame, the process of reaching this point may well have broken all African records. African Union member states launched negotiations to create this huge market of 1.2-billion people with a GDP of over $3.4-trillion in only March last year. Jakkie Cilliers, head of African Futures and Innovation at the Institute for Security Studies, calculates that the AfCFTA, if properly implemented, would boost Africa’s economic growth and reduce extreme poverty more than any other single factor in the long term. In a forthcoming book on Africa’s future, Cilliers reports on the results of forecasts done using the International Futures software on the likely impacts of 11 major transitions: social grants, rejuvenated education, peace, a fourth wave of democracy, improved health, external support, a demographic dividend (a timely bulge in the size of the working-age population), an upsurge in local manufacturing, an African agricultural revolution, leapfrogging outdated technologies – and the AfCFTA. Cilliers found that other drivers such as social grants, agriculture, leapfrogging and manufacturing would make the biggest difference in the short term. But by 2050, the AfCFTA would clearly be exerting the greatest impact on GDP per capita and extreme poverty. For example in lower-middle-income countries it would be boosting annual GDP per capita by over $1 500, compared to the next biggest factor, technology leapfrogging, which would be...

Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo have agreed to come with a list of products, as well as the size of businesses, that will benefit from tax-free cross-border trade. The development followed a meeting on Saturday evening between the Minister for Trade and Industry, Soraya Hakuziyaremye and Lambert Matuku Memas, the Congolese Minister for External Trade. The bilateral meeting was held in Kigali and aimed at, among others, consider an agreement intended to promote cross-border trade between the two countries that they signed in 2016, and devise ways to address identified challenges. Matuku voiced concerns that there are traders who have been fraudulently exploiting the simplified trade regime, which posed an obstacle to the effective implementation of that business arrangement. He called for measures to curb that malpractice. The simplified trade regime (STR) was launched in 2007 by the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the East African Community (EAC) to facilitate small-scale cross-border trade. Under the regime, small-scale cross-border traders dealing in certain types of commodities benefit from a duty-free arrangement. Goods that are originating from member countries and whose value does not exceed $1,000 or about Rwf800,000 (COMESA) or $2,000 or about Rwf1.8 million (EAC) per consignment qualify automatically for duty-free entry in the respective markets. DR Congo officials said $2,000 for small traders, which was currently the ceiling for tax exonerated beneficiary, is a huge amount, proposing that the sum be reduced to $500. The visiting minister indicated that, initially, the idea was for...

TradeMark Africa (TMA) and Rwanda’s trade body, the Private Sector Federation (PSF) announced a new public private sector dialogue (PPD) for trade and investment programme and support to women entrepreneur’s programme. TMA will fund both programmes with US$2.26 Million over a period of four years. The two organisations made the announcement during the signing of a grant agreement, which also marked the kickoff of the first phase, which will run for two years. PSF which is the umbrella of all business in Rwanda said the Public-Private Sector Dialogue (PPD) for Trade and Investment programme, will build mechanisms that support the private sector to actively and meaningfully participate resolving local and regional trade issues; and especially pushing for resolution of matters affecting Rwanda. For example, as a land locked country, Rwanda contends with numerous non-tariff barriers along the key transport corridors from port to destination, leading to high transport costs. Removal of such non-tariff barriers would greatly reduce transport related costs.  “We have identified priority issues like regional transport logistics which, if resolved can reduce transport costs and time in Rwanda,” said PSF CEO, Stephen Ruzibiza . “We may have the disadvantage of having no port. therefore our aim is to make the country land linked; and we will continue to work with the government of Rwanda to reform customs and adopt Information Communication Technology for Trade with the aim of further reducing time and costs; with a unified voice we expect to push for a reduction of tariffs, taxes and levies...