Rwanda: Govt's Move Good

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East African Business Week (Kampala)

OPINION
23 August 2008
Posted to the web 25 August 2008

Brian Coutinho

Last week, the Rwanda Investment and Export Promotion Agency (RIEPA) held its second Business Follow-up Series and Expo in London, United Kingdom.

The expo, which was organised by RIEPA in conjunction with the Rwandan Embassy in the UK, was preceded by the 4th International Investment Conference held in Kigali a few weeks ago.

What is interesting about the expo last week is that Rwanda was doing it the second time on her own - something other members of the East African Community (EAC) have rarely or not done as individual states.

While Uganda for instance attends international expos organised on worldwide scale, Rwanda has organised an expo in London on her own.

And the same can be said for Kenya, Tanzania and Burundi. This now begs the question; can't the EAC adopt this strategy and hit the big cities of Europe with what East Africa has to offer?

Try and imagine the stands at the expo if Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania paraded everything that is made/grown in East Africa?

The amount of publicity such an unprecedented move would garner would ensure the expo is a success and will become a calendar event every year and the returns would be staggering.

Last week, RIEPA arrived in London with products they think are potentially exportable to the supermarkets of Europe. Products included cassava flour, crafts, tea, coffee, concentrated fruit juices etcetera.

Have any of the other member states of the EAC carried any of the products produced/grown in those countries on 'investor scouting excursions'?

The positives out of a strategy like this is that a prospective investor can then see, touch, smell, feel and even taste the product.

We believe that if an investor were interested in say crushing passion fruit and produce it on a mass scale to satisfy the huge market that is the EU, tasting that fruit juice that the people at RIEPA carried to London would make that prospective investor's decision in investing in a multi-million dollar fruit juice business easier.

This is opposed to speaking in front on huge conference audiences or talking to prospective buyers and investors across an emptystand filled with little brochures that don't have the magical impact a big water melon or pineapple would have.

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