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Burundi: Country Ready for Investors, Tourism
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East African Business Week (Kampala)
INTERVIEW
28 April 2008
Posted to the web 28 April 2008
Burundi is currently undergoing economic transformation following the cessation of protracted wars and being admitted to the East African Community (EAC). East African Business Week's Stephen Asiimwe met with The Second Vice-President Mr. Gabriel Ntisezirana and asked him about the way forward for the country's development plans.
Below are the excerpts.
Burundi is currently undergoing economic transformation following the cessation of protracted wars and being admitted to the East African Community, what is your country doing now?
Burundi is determined to open a new era of prosperity and development. In that respect, the Government has decided to reform its public sector and create a better environment for private investments.
As far as the public sector is concerned, we are harnessing our financial public management and a new public finance organic law is under discussion.
This law will give clear responsibilities to officials mandated to manage the public finance.
Other related laws such as budget preparation, budget execution, budget accounting and budget control will be revised and strengthened. On the other hand, the fiscal code is under review.
Our aim is to motivate private investments by offering fiscal incentives to any private investment. Preparations are under way to implement the Value Added Tax (VAT) in replacement of the Transaction Tax (TT).
Concerning the private sector, investment opportunities are available in which potential competitiveness is very high. These are: coffee, tea, horticulture, tourism and minerals.
What incentives have you put in place to attract foreign investments?
Burundi is modernising its business legal environment to attract more foreign direct investment. The following laws are are being looked at: Commercial Code, Company Law, Bankruptcy Law, Competition Law, Mining Code, Fiscal Code and Investment Code. Once adopted by the Parliament, all these laws will be translated in English for easy use by foreign investors.
The government has embarked on the privatisation of government agencies and enterprises. Can you explain how far this has gone and which enterprises are up for sale?
The Government is preparing an action plan to privatise all or part of its shares in public companies. Sectors to be privatised are: coffee, tea, sugar, cotton, telecommunication, hotels, banks, etc... We invite foreign and local investors to prepare themselves to take over some of these opportunities.
Burundi is a very beautiful country, what is the country doing to develop tourism facilities and also promote itself as a premier destination?
Burundi's uniqueness is found most in tourism. Some of the best tourism products are: Lake Tanganyika, the longest and deepest lake in Africa with clean water and a variety of fish, birds and national parks. Burundi culture is renowned for its drums. We are currently registering demands of investors willing to develop hotels and other attractions.
Have you seen any tangible benefits from joining the East African Community?
In this era of globalisation, Burundi cannot stand alone. It has to integrate within larger communities, starting from its neighbours which were in the East African Community. Burundi will benefit in many aspects, economic, social and political. Burundi investors can now work in the larger market of 120 million East Africans compared to a mere seven million Burundians. Burundi will open up and get more investments from East Africa and elsewhere. The whole area will benefit from the free movement of goods and persons.
Burundi has a large population in the diaspora. Is there any attempt by government to harness and attract their financial reserves to develop the nation?
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With regard to the diaspora, two aspects have to be taken into account. Brain drain and financial reserves. Well trained people from Burundi and other developing countries are working in developed countries. Most of them were trained by our meagre resources. We expect them to come back and help develop their own countries. At the same time, while they are still in foreign countries their financial reserves could be deposited in our financial institutions and help develop our countries.
There were reports that Burundi was developing a railway to link with Rwanda and Tanzania. At what stage is this initiative?
Burundi, being a landlocked country, experiences high cost of transportation. This has a negative impact on our international business, giving a high cost on our products on import and export. We want to link Burundi to Tanzania and Rwanda by a railway to solve this problem. Studies are finished now and construction is set to begin in 2009 and end by 2014.
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