Rwanda is a landlocked country situated in central Africa. Also known as ’the land of a thousand hills’, Rwanda has five volcanoes, twenty-three lakes and numerous rivers, some forming the source of the River Nile. The country lies 75 miles south of the equator in the Tropic of Capricorn, 880 miles ’as the crow flies’ west of the Indian Ocean and 1,250 miles east of the Atlantic Ocean – literally in the heart of Africa. Rwanda is bordered by Uganda to the north, Tanzania to the east, Burundi to the south and the democratic republic of Congo to the west.

Anyone visiting ’the land of a thousand hills’ is in for a multitude of surprises. The loveliness and variety of the landscapes in this ’green country’ is dominated to the north by volcanoes and bordered by Lake Kivu to the west. In Rwanda the great animals of the wild are protected from poachers and roam free in the vast national parks. The Volcanoes National park in the Virunga volcanic mountains with its high altitude forests, are world famous for mountain gorillas – timid and passive family oriented giants – which is teeming with wildlife both large and small, while Lake Kivu to the west offers beautiful beaches, jutting peninsulas and an archipelago of islands.

In 2018, Rwanda marked over ten years of prioritizing the doing business reform agenda in order to create a favorable and competitive business environment.

It is also the year in which it posted its strongest performance to date where Rwanda emerged as the 29th easiest place to do business globally, was among the top 10 global reformers and was the 2nd easiest place to do business in Africa- 1st in Mainland Africa and East Africa according to the World Bank Doing Business Report 2019.

• As Rwanda positioned itself as an economy open for business with the global economy, the Doing Business report has been a strong signaling factor to investors that Rwanda is a safe, stable and efficient place to invest.
• As a result, the value of investments registered more than tripled from US$400 million in 2010 to US$2.006 billion in 2018.

The East African Community (EAC) is a regional intergovernmental organization of 6 Partner States: the Republics of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, the United Republic of Tanzania, and the Republic of Uganda, with its headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania.

The EAC is home to 172 million citizens, of which over 22% is urban population. With a land area of 2.5 million square kilometers and a combined Gross Domestic Product of US$ 172 billion (EAC Statistics for 2017), its realization bears great strategic and geopolitical significance and prospects for the renewed and reinvigorated EAC.

The work of the EAC is guided by its Treaty which established the Community. It was signed on 30 November 1999 and entered into force on 7 July 2000 following its ratification by the original three Partner States – Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. The Republic of Rwanda and the Republic of Burundi acceded to the EAC Treaty on 18 June 2007 and became full Members of the Community with effect from 1 July 2007. The Republic of South Sudan acceded to the Treaty on 15 April 2016 and become a full Member on 15 August 2016.

As one of the fastest growing regional economic blocs in the world, the EAC is widening and deepening co-operation among the Partner States in various key spheres for their mutual benefit. These spheres include political, economic and social.

At the moment, the regional integration process is in full swing as reflected by the encouraging progress of the East African Customs Union, the establishment of the Common Market in 2010 and the implementation of the East African Monetary Union Protocol.

Current status:

The process towards an East African Federation is being fast tracked, underscoring the serious determination of the East African leadership and citizens to construct a powerful and sustainable East African economic and political bloc.

For more information visit www.eac.int