The government of Rwanda is confident that the recently launched industrial policy project in the country will boost industrial capacity in the country.
The African Development Bank (AfDB) and the government of Rwanda launched the two-year project, worth $550,000, in June 2022 with a goal of creating over 200,000 jobs annually to promote development.
In a statement on its website, the AfDB said the project, titled ‘Enhancing the Quality of Industrial Policy in Rwanda’, is designed to build the capacity of staff under the Ministry of Trade and Industry and its agencies.
It also noted that the project aims to help the Rwanda Development Board and the private sector to design, implement and evaluate industrial policies independently or with minimal reliance on external expertise.
According to the 2022 African Economic Outlook, after contracting by 3.4 percent in 2020 due to Covid-19, Rwanda’s gross domestic product growth (GDP) reached ten percent in 2021. The country’s GDP growth is projected at 6.9 percent in 2022 and 7.9 percent in 2023.
‘The project has been designed to support and stimulate private sector growth, contributing towards more inclusive and sustainable economic growth in Rwanda’, the AfDB Country Director for Rwanda, Aissa Toure Sarr, said.
‘It also aligns with the bank’s industrialise Africa strategy. We are committed to providing policy advice and technical assistance to the government through the programme’.
For his part, the country’s Minister of Trade and Industry, Beata Habyarimana, said, ‘This project comes at the right time, when we are reviewing the 2011 industrial policy.
‘The support to strengthen our capacities to effectively implement and monitor the effectiveness of industrialisation strategies through a series of Enhancing the Quality of Industrial Policies (EQuIP) technical assistance and capacity development training is of paramount importance’.
The underlying economic goals of the project include creating over 200,000 jobs annually to promote development, positioning Rwanda as a globally competitive knowledge-based economy, promoting industrialisation and shifting the export base to high-value goods and services.
It is understood that the project aligns with Rwanda’s ambition to achieve upper-middle-income status by 2035.
Photo source: Mugisha Don de Dieu
