Off the wire
• Brazilian banks remain profitable despite continuing crisis  • UN refugee agency, partners distribute relief to flood victims in Myanmar  • Croatia holds military parade celebrating war victory despite Serbia's criticism  • UNWTO praises China for using tourism to fight poverty  • 1st LD Writethru: Oil prices rebound after heavy selloff  • Urgent: U.S. stocks end mildly lower amid earnings reports  • New biomarker helps predict breast cancer risk: study  • 1st LD Writethru: U.S. dollar rises amid upbeat data  • Legionnaires' disease outbreak in New York city leaves 7 dead  • UN chief commends U.S. for climate change plan  
You are here: 　 Home

Rwanda ranks high in attracting foreign investment: report

Xinhua, August 5, 2015 Adjust font size:

A report released on Monday by a South Africa-based investment bank has named the top 10 African countries with "dynamic" performance in attracting foreign direct investment.

South Africa tops the list followed by Nigeria, Ghana, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Algeria, Rwanda and Tanzania, according to the report by Rand Merchant Bank.

The survey was conducted based on a factors for most business investment decisions -- market size or Gross Domestic Product (GDP), economic growth (GDP growth forecasts over the next five years), and an operating environment index.

Of the top 10 countries in Africa, four are in North Africa, two in West Africa, three in East Africa and one in Southern Africa.

"Rwanda and Ethiopia are the most unexpected countries in the top 10, but both deserve their elevated status. Rwanda's rating reflects the excellent reforms of the past decade and Ethiopia's reflects its sheer size and phenomenal growth rates," said the report.

Rwanda has demonstrated consistent strong performance in the World Bank Doing Business Rankings in recent years with progress said to have been made across all the key indicators.

The 2015 World Bank Doing Business Report ranked Rwanda 46th out of 189 countries globally that were promoting conducive environment for business.

The country which aims to become a middle income nation by 2020, has established joint business ties with countries like Kenya, Uganda, Turkey and India with investment seen into various sectors like manufacturing, tourism, telecommunication, energy, education and agriculture.

The country has boosted investment opportunities by introducing a new investment law.

The new investment law, launched in Kigali last month, replaced one enacted in 2005, seeks to bring 1.12 billion U.S. dollars foreign direct investments (FDI) by the end of the year.

Figures from Rwanda Development Board (RDB) put the country's actual FDI at 257 million U.S. dollars in 2013 and 521 million U.S. dollars in 2014. Enditem