JAPAN and the WORLD Magazine JULY ISSUE 2015 #Issue 12 | Page 74

RWANDA
NATION BRANDING
QA
INTERVIEW:
H.E. DR. CHARLES MURIGANDE
Ambassador of Rwanda to Japan (recalled to Rwanda in April 2015)
Since the tragedy of the 1994
Genocide that befell the country,
eager to learn from it’s past and
become a peaceful and developed
country, Rwanda has changed
considerably. It now boasts as
one of the most stable political,
economic and social environments
in Africa. Rwanda is regularly
lauded by international actors
such as the World Bank.
Japan and the World magazine
sat down with the Ambassador of
Rwanda to Japan, H.E. Dr. Charles
Murigande, to discuss the Land
of a Thousand Hills’ extraordinary
development.
Following Part One, published
in our April issue, which was
dedicated to the socio-cultural
aspect of the Rwandan Revival, we
discuss in Part Two the economic
aspects.
Q The World Bank’s “Doing Business”
reports regularly praises the efforts
of Rwanda. Ranked 143rd out of 189
countries in 2009 on ease of doing
business in the country, it jumped
in a single year to 67th in 2010. This
tremendous improvement raises
the question, “what is next on the
agenda of reforms for the private
sector”?
H.E. Mr. Paul Kagame, President of the Republic
of Rwanda, during the 9th Northern Corridor
Integration Project summit in March 2015.
A We evaluated the current legislature and
began reforms in 2009. We moved fast—
from being ranked 143rd to 67th in one year.
Rwanda is the only country to have achieved
this. Over the last five years, we have made
several reforms that have enabled Rwanda
to rank 46th in 2015.
As part of the Northern Corridor Integration
initiative, many projects addressing the
constraints of regional cross-border trade
and business are ongoing with neighboring
East African Countries—Kenya, Uganda,
South Sudan and Burundi. These are not
only infrastructure developments, but
also trade barriers removals. For example,
moving a container by land from Mombasa,
Kenya, to Kigali, Rwanda’s capital, used to
take twenty-two days due to the number
of trade barriers; it now takes six days.
ルワンダは1994年に大虐殺という悲
劇に見舞われて以降、過去から熱心
に学び、平和で発展した国家へと大き
く変わりました。今やアフリカでも指
折りの安定した政治と経済、社会環境
を誇ります。世界銀行などの国際機関
からも常に称賛されている国です。
Japan and the World誌は、駐日ルワ
ンダ特命全権大使のチャールズ・ム
リガンデ博士にお会いし、
「千の丘の
国」の驚くべき発展について直接お
話を伺いました。
4月号掲載のパート1では社会文化的
な側面をご紹介しましたが、今号の
パート2では、復活したルワンダの経
済面について語っていただきました。
74 // JULY 2015
H.E. Dr. Charles Murigande
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Rwanda to Japan.
His Excellency was recalled to Rwanda in April 2015.