Rwanda rated top business reformer in World Bank Doing Business in EAC 2013 Report

During the launch of the World Bank’s “Doing Business in the East African Community (EAC) 2013” report today in Kigali, Rwanda was named the top EAC economy to introduce regulatory reforms that have improved the business environment between 2005 and 2012. Globally, Rwanda is rated 52nd.

The World Bank report also highlights Rwanda’s success in cutting red tape and encouraging private sector led growth. “Rwanda’s commitment to private sector development has facilitated growth in exports, domestic investment and foreign direct investment inflows—and the implementation of effective fiscal policies supported by structural and institutional reforms.”

Rwanda was also ranked the second economy globally to advance in closing the gap to the frontier. The frontier is the highest performance observed on each indicator in the report. The better an economy is doing, the closer it is to 100. Rwanda has gone from 38 in 2006 to 64.5 in 2013.

This was facilitated by the implementation of 23 regulatory reforms since 2005 to facilitate a competitive and easy business process.

In her remarks during the report launch, Minister Monique Mukaluriza called on EAC member states to harmonise policies and laws. “Policies and protocols to improve the business environment for our entrepreneurs should be fast tracked.”

The report says that over the last year, improvements were observed in all five EAC economies. The report also highlights that e-government initiatives in the region provide an opportunity for easy access to information as well as increasing transparency.

The report ranked EAC as a regional bloc higher, on average, than COMESA, SADC and ECOWAS.