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British businessmen seek investments in Rwanda

Xinhua, March 13, 2015 Adjust font size:

A delegation of 40 businessmen from Britain, Hungary and Netherlands are in Rwanda for a three- day visit seeking investment in the country.

At a meeting in Kigali on Thursday, Rwanda Development Board (RDB) and other government officials briefed the visitors on the areas where they expect investments, including housing, infrastructure, mining and transport.

Britain and Rwanda held a trade investment forum last October in London.

Francis Gatare, RDB's chief executive told the investors that the purchase power of Rwandans continues to improve as poverty levels in the country have been declining.

He said this brings about an environment for doing business and investment in the country's infrastructure projects such as the standard gauge railway which is expected to cost more than 1.2 billion U.S. Dollars and cover up a population of 141 million people.

Rwanda's Minister of Trade and Industry Francois Kanimba said although Britain has been Rwanda's leading development partner since 1994, its investments in the country remain low which he calls for more efforts.

Clare Akamanzi, RDB's chief operations officer, said there are only 19 British investment projects currently registered in Rwanda worth 120 million U.S. dollars.

In 2014, Rwanda attracted 500 million U.S. dollars worth of investments, official figures show.

The Rwandan officials cited a proposed seven year tax holiday for certain investments as one of the incentives to be expected in the country under a new investment policy.

The investors raised the inadequate power generation and high taxes on some business among their concerns.

The officials said the Rwandan government is on course to achieve its power target of more than 560 megawatts with a number of ongoing projects as well as plans to import electricity from neighboring Kenya starting in August.

The government will also set up an independent tax court through which taxpayers can raise their complaints and expect objective compensation, the officials added. Endi