Time to increase trade volumes between Zim, Rwanda—ED

RYAN CHIGOCHE

The Zimbabwe-Rwanda Trade and Investment Conference opened Monday amid calls by President Emmerson Mnangagwa to scale up trade volumes between the two countries.

The conference is the second to be held between the two countries following the inaugural edition held in Rwanda last year.

Speaking at the investment conference in Harare Monday, Mnangagwa applauded ZimTrade and Rwanda Development Board (RDB) for the “excellent work in facilitating joint efforts and the networking of the private sector from both countries”.

“The cordial and excellent relationship between Rwanda and Zimbabwe should continue to spur growth of businesses across various sectors of the economy. We have the collective responsibility to shift the trend  which was characterised by low trade  volumes between our two friendly countries despite the huge potential,” he said.

Rwanda’s Trade and Industry minister Beata Habyarimana commended the efforts to forge business relationship between the two countries, emphasising on the need to fast track trade between the two countries.

“This conference comes at an opportune time in forging bilateral relations between the two countries and I commend ZimTrade and RDB  in their efforts to promote bilateral trade  and investment opportunities between the two countries. Our cooperation has  indeed grown exponentially in the last 5 years with agreements signed in various sectors of common interest such as education. From this conference we need to facilitate business growth between Rwanda and Zimbabwe,” Habyarimana said.

Zephanie Niyonkuru, RDB  deputy CEO, said the partnership between the two countries was also going to benefit other countries in the region.

“Since the conference we held last year we saw more businesses getting registered. We want to make sure that we increase the contribution of our members of the private sector to the development of our two nations. This will not benefit only us but also countries within the region,” Niyonkuru said.

ZimTrade CEO Allan Majuru said  his organisation would be working very closely with Rwanda to increase exports and attain the government National Development Strategy 1 target of US$7bn of exports by 2023.

The conference’s theme is “Explore, Invest, Export” which reflects the generally held belief that trade, investment, and exports are vital drivers of long-term socioeconomic development and growth.

The conference, which runs till March 31, is attended by 60 Rwandan businesses.

Two Memoranda Understanding of Understanding in the areas of trade and investment, and climate change and and an implementation agreement with Zesa Holdings were signed today.