Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Doing Business 2010: Rwanda vs. Egypt

The new World Bank report "Doing Business 2010" is out. Egypt has been struggling for the past 3 years to move from the 125th position to the 106th position. Rwanda, on the other hand, jumped from the 143rd position to the 67th position in one year! Question: Is the Rwandan government better than the Egyptian government? How does making business in Rwanda become easier than making business in Egypt!!
Resembling Egypt’s progress to that of a turtle would be unfair to the turtle because the “turtle” has beaten the “rabbit”. On the other hand, the only thing that the Egyptian government has “beaten” is the Egyptian people. 15 years ago, Rwanda was suffering from a genocide in which hundreds of thousands of people died in tribal killings and today it’s easier to do business in Rwanda than in Egypt.

“Tony Blair praises Rwanda's status as top reformer this year: "Anyone considering where to invest should go to Rwanda and see the hugely significant progress President Kagame's government has made in recent years. With his zero tolerance approach to corruption, extra protection for investors and sustained economic growth, investors should sit up and take note of this African success story."”