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P 091524Z SEP 09
FM AMEMBASSY KIGALI
TO SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6281
INFO AMEMBASSY ADDIS ABABA PRIORITY 
AMEMBASSY BRUSSELS PRIORITY 
AMEMBASSY BUJUMBURA PRIORITY 
AMEMBASSY DAR ES SALAAM PRIORITY 
AMEMBASSY KAMPALA PRIORITY 
AMEMBASSY KINSHASA PRIORITY 
AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 
AMEMBASSY NAIROBI PRIORITY 
AMEMBASSY PARIS PRIORITY

UNCLAS KIGALI 000552 
 
 
DEPT PASS TO OPIC JDIDIUK, SJOHNSON 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON EINV ETRD EAID RW
SUBJECT: WORLD BANK RANKS RWANDA MOST IMPROVED FOR BUSINESS 
 
REF: KIGALI 496 
 
¶1. (U) SUMMARY:  World Bank "Ease of Doing Business" 2010 
indicators--released September 8, 2009--recognize Rwanda as 
the world's top reformer in implementing business regulation 
reforms.  Rwanda introduced reforms in seven out of ten 
categories, improving its overall ranking from 143 to 67 out 
of 183 economies included in the study.  In sub-Saharan 
Africa, Rwanda trails only Mauritius, South Africa, Botswana 
and Namibia and has catapulted past neighboring East African 
countries of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Burundi.  END 
SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (U)  The World Bank Doing Business project provides 
objective measures of business regulations and their 
enforcement across 183 economies world-wide.  It is based on 
the premise that a good business environment requires good 
business regulations, and enforcement of those regulations. 
First initiated in 2003, the study looks at ten indicators of 
good business regulation and compares countries' performance 
against each other and prior years. 
 
¶3. (U)  Based on these ten indicators, Rwanda over the last 
year has emerged as the world's top reformer with significant 
reforms in seven of ten categories and overall rank 
improvement from 143 in the 2009 report to 67 in the 2010 
study.  The Bank noted that this is the first time a 
sub-Saharan African country had led its "most improved" list. 
 Rwanda is now in the top five countries in Sub-Saharan 
Africa for business regulatory environment after Mauritius, 
South Africa, Botswana and Namibia.  In East Africa, Rwanda 
leads Kenya (95), Uganda (112), Tanzania (131) and Burundi 
(176). 
 
¶4. (U)  The most dramatic regulatory improvements were in the 
categories of "Starting a Business" ( 76), "Protecting 
Investors" ( 144), "Employing Workers" ( 83) and "Getting 
Credit" ( 86).  In contrast "Dealing with Construction 
Permits" and "Closing a Business" showed no improvement while 
"Trading Across Borders", "Enforcing Contracts" and 
"Registering Property" improved only slightly.  "Paying 
Taxes" deteriorated marginally.  The World Bank report does 
not address key areas of the business climate--such as 
corruption--where Rwanda would likely score well.  Similarly, 
the report does not evaluate the quality of infrastructure 
and availability of skilled labor, where Rwanda might score 
lower. 
 
¶5. (U)  Some of the indicators are largely outside the 
Government of Rwanda's (GOR) control.  For example, the 
indicators for "Trading Across Borders" show that Rwanda 
ranks 170th out of 183 countries primarily due to the high 
cost of transport.  The cost of exporting from Rwanda as 
measured by US$ per container is $3,275 for Rwanda compared 
to an average of $1,942 for the rest of sub-Saharan Africa 
and $1,090 for OECD countries. 
 
¶6. (U) COMMENT:  Rwanda's dramatic improvement in its 
business regulatory environment, as demonstrated by their 
catapult jump in the World Bank report, is a significant 
accomplishment.  Since the World Bank first published the 
report in 2003, the GOR has consistently focused on improving 
the business environment as a critical component to 
attracting needed foreign capital.  In 2008, the Rwanda 
Development Board was established to streamline the 
investment process, minimize trade barriers and market Rwanda 
Qinvestment process, minimize trade barriers and market Rwanda 
as a "business friendly" environment.  Significant new 
business friendly legislation was also signed into law. 
These improvements have contributed to improving the business 
climate and are already bearing fruit by attracting new 
American investment (reftel).  END COMMENT. 
 
 
SYMINGTON