Gov’t to focus on trade deficit, unemployment

KIGALI - The Government will direct more efforts towards reducing the trade deficit the country is facing as well as tackling unemployment. The two were identified as the biggest and most urgent challenges the country is faced with during the just concluded National Leadership Retreat. During the retreat in Rubavu District, attended by over 200 government officials, it was observed that the country imports four times what it exports, resulting into huge trade deficits. It was therefore resolved that as a country that is determined to move forward, the deficit should be addressed urgently by accelerating the growth of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) that can produce some of the products the country imports. In a news conference to announce the outcomes of the retreat, the Minister of Cabinet Affairs and the Caretaker Minister of Information, Protais Musoni, said that apart from trade deficits, the other major challenge was unemployment. “. The number of educated people keeps increasing, but the number of jobs available doesn’t. Musoni said. “How do we turn people into job creators instead of job seekers? We also want to find ways of enabling people to start small enterprises so that they can be self employed but to do this, we urgently need energy for that to happen, we need expertise and know-how,” he added. Musoni, who was flanked by the Minister of Education, Dr. Charles Murigande, and the Minister of Trade and Industry Monique Nsanzabaganwa, said that the resolutions rotated around increasing the quality of education, SMEs and cutting down trade deficits and unemployment because they are all interconnected. It was resolved that ICT, if well development, is a tool that can enhance and speed up all the above and hence the government will put more effort in developing the sector to make it a catalyst for other areas. Also agreed upon was the need f to work hard towards changing the perception people have about the country as achievements speak louder than any other public relations. “By this, we resolved that we have to be result-oriented, everyone has to champion something, from leaders to the ordinary citizens, by setting objectives and following up on the progress in as far as achieving them is concerned,” Musoni said. The Prime Minister will be conducting an assessment on the progress, of all resolutions, after every three months, in all the 3 clusters of economy, governance and social affairs. Among the major decisions adopted at the retreat, was the need for information access and sharing, where all leaders will be required to have an open policy of sharing information by working closely with the media and citizens. According to Nsanzabaganwa, the government, through Rwanda Development Board (RDB), set a target of attracting investments worth at least US$550m by the end of the year, noting that investors will play a big role in reducing trade deficits and unemployment levels. “We want to build the capacity of RDB to make it the sole government agency that handles investments by negotiating and reaching favourable agreements with investors. Among other things, RDB will have a land bank where interested investors will be allocated land,” she said. The minister added that the government has established the Business District Service (BDS), in all the 30 districts, and a Business Development Fund (BDF) to benefit SMEs. It has also established a new body, the Energy and Water Sanitation Agency (EWASA), to fast track access to energy. It targets increasing energy generation to 100MW by 2017. Ends