The first Global African Investment Summit in Africa to be Held in Kigali-Rwanda
By Robert Kayinamura, First Counsellor at the Embassy of the Republic of Rwanda.
The Global African Investment Summit (TGAIS) in partnership with COMESA and Government of Rwanda has its inaugural summit on the African Continent On September 5-6 September in Kigali -Rwanda.
Rwanda being one of COMESA’s Member States, will host summit to promote the competitive environment created by COMESA markets to drive growth and the deployment of foreign direct investment. The event will host up to 1,000 high-level delegates from the public and private spheres as well as bringing top global investors in control of over $100Billion USD to Kigali to drive regional growth through FDI.
The summit will also engage the private sector on the TFTA initiative and explore how public and private sectors can collaborate to realise the aspiration of Africa’s largest single market. This summit encourages regional trade and investment by giving African governments, business leaders and visionaries the opportunity to present their projects and set up partnerships with new investment pools, operators and partners.
The conference’s organisers have highlighted three key areas to address: Developing trade & investment corridors in the TFTA region; Attracting investment and private sector players to enhance the physical infrastructure to facilitate the movement of goods and persons and Creating an environment that enables harmonisation through policy and regulation.
The event will feature a dedicated exhibition area where Tripartite investment promotion agencies and selected companies will showcase their capabilities, solutions, products and services, as well as meet with investors, project developers and implementers to discuss bankable projects and investment opportunities.
There are several reasons why these big summits are held in Rwanda, among others is that Rwanda’s capital city has illustrated its capability as a high-level international MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences, exhibitions) venue. Also, Rwanda’s development achievements and success have attracted several conferences on development and doing business to be held in Rwanda.
According to the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) indicates that Rwanda moved up four places this year to the 62nd position from 66th position last year. This makes Rwanda the most competitive in the East African Community and third most competitive country in the sub- Saharan African region after Mauritius which ranks 1st and South Africa which ranks 2nd. The top three countries regarding competitiveness in the world are Switzerland, Singapore and the USA respectively.
Rwanda benefits from strong and well-functioning institutions, (ranking at 20th position) with very low levels of corruption and a good security environment. Rwanda ranks 2nd in regarding days of staring business, on 3rd position in some procedures to start a business, 4th position, regarding wastefulness government spending, among other subsections of the index.
This ranking is a result of extensive efforts by the government to continuously improve the business environment. As we move towards becoming a middle-income country, Rwanda is doing its best to develop a more sustainable and competitive economy that will benefit all Rwandans. The Government of Rwanda has come up with several initiatives such as the Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy, the Private-Public Dialogue mechanism and strengthening higher learning institutions and human capacity to support the country’s economic agenda.
