KIGALI, June 20 (Xinhua) -- Rwanda has started on reforming business environment in order to create conducive investment climate for both foreign and domestic investors.
The Rwanda Development Board (RDB) on Tuesday announced 14 business reforms that are currently under implementation, a move that is creating an efficient, better legal environment, incentives and creating a sound and stable macroeconomic environment.
The 14 reforms that fall under seven indicators evaluated by the World Bank Doing Business Report are expected to further improve the investment climate for both local and international investors.
Among the reforms are reduction and costs and time to obtain a construction permit which had previously been termed as costly and time consuming.
Addressing a news conference on Tuesday, Clare Akamanzi, chief executive officer of RDB said one of the significant reforms is the passing of the new company law of 2009 that was repealed and replaced to incorporate global best practice.
The new company law enhances the rights of minority shareholders and introduces lean management structures for small and medium enterprises in the country.
"A friendly business environment provides an opportunity to attract Foreign Direct Investments. Rwanda continues strong doing business reforms to boost investment and private sector growth," she said.
Akamanzi added that doing business reforms like the reduction in the time and costs to obtain construction permits have greatly reduced the burden for SMEs growth in Rwanda and increased transparency and corporate governance.
RDB will continue to engage the private sector and other stakeholders to find ways to further improve business environment, said the CEO.
According to RDB, the city of Kigali authorities have introduced an online system, the Construction Building Permitting System that cuts down the number of days taken to acquire a construction permit to between five and seven days.
The new reforms have also made it easy to trade across border by scrapping off some documentation required and easing the access of other documents.
With that traders no longer have to go to the Rwanda Revenue Authority Offices to get a certificate of origin and can acquire it at any exit point or border.
The small central African country that targets to reach upper middle income status by 2035 has boosted investment opportunities by introducing a new investment law.
The new investment law, launched in Kigali in 2015, replaced one enacted in 2005, seeks to enable the Rwandan to be more accessible to foreign businesses.
The country boasts a good business environment that is corruption free and reducing the hours of registering a business from 24 hours to 6 hours, hence attracting both local and foreign investors.
In the World Bank Group report, Doing Business 2017, Rwanda ranked 56th out of 190 countries' economies in ease of doing business, further encouraging investor confidence.
Rwanda has also opened strategic business offices in different countries like Turkey, Canada, UK, the United States, South Africa, Singapore and China, with the aim of promoting investments in those countries.
