22/05/2006 - 3rd Investment Conference opens in Kigali

< RPSF President Robert Bayigamba (center) during the Investment Conference

On Monday 22/05, the Third Investment Conference opened in Hotel Intercontinental, Kigali. The conference, which brings together more than 260 national, regional and international participants from 32 countries, is organized by the Rwanda Investment and Export Promotion Agency (RIEPA). The objective is mainly to promote investment opportunities in Rwanda. It is the third consecutive year that this conference is held in Rwanda. This years' theme is "Discovering irresistible opportunities for investment and profitability in a virgin economy".

The conference was officially opened by the guest of honor, President Paul Kagame. In his speech, he announced that RIEPA has registered new projects worth USD 470m in 2005, compared to USD 210m in 2004. The President also stressed the strong economic performances of the country over the last years, pointing out that Foreign Direct Investment has more than doubled between 1995 and 2005. He also referred to the Doing Business Survey, carried out by the World Bank in 2005, and in which Rwanda was ranked the best African country. President Kagame drew applause when he said that, whereas this report indicates that it takes 21 days to open a business in Rwanda, this has in the meantime been reduced to 14 days.

On the program of the conference are interventions concerning Rwanda's free zone, opportunities linked to the expansion of Kigali city and its new airport, as well as presentations of opportunities in various sectors such as energy, ICT, mining, tourism, and leather processing. The second day of the conference will be dedicated to "one-on-one" meetings. These will continue during the third and last day, when there is also the possibility to have a guided tour.

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4/05/2006 - Second mobile telephone network launched

Terracom, the American telecommunications company that acquired the national telephone company Rwandatel through the privatization process, has launched its own mobile telephone network. Users can now choose between the new system or the existing provider MTN-Rwandacell.
For a long time, telephone communication in Rwanda has been supplied only by the national telephone company Rwandatel, which was established in 1993 when the PTT was separated in a post and telephone unit. For years, the company held a monopoly situation on telephone services. It was also the first Internet service provider, introducing the worldwide web in Rwanda in the mid 90’s.
The situation changed in 1997, when MTN brought the mobile phone to the country. It was a huge success, and in less than ten years the company had nearly 150,000 subscribers. An achievement which is not to be underestimated, given the fact that Rwandatel had still less than 50,000 customers.
And then came Terracom. The company was already active in Rwanda as an Internet service provider, constructing an optical fiber network. In 2005, the Terracom acquired Rwandatel through the privatization program. Prior to Rwandatel’s privatization, it had been given a mobile telephone license, in line with the government’s policy to liberalize the telecommunications market.
And one can only say that this liberalization is a success. Today, Rwandans can choose between various Internet providers and now, for the first time in the country’s history, between two telephone company’s (at least for mobile phones). This competition can only benefit the consumer. As has been seen around the world, the newcomer has entered the market with lower rates - the backside of the coin is that Terracom uses CDMA technology compared to MTN’s GSM system, so customers will have to buy a new handset. Nevertheless, for the first time the telecommunications sector will see a battle for the consumer. We can only hope that this will also become the case in other sectors.

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