Background on the Company

The report takes into account the aspect of international business to see how an individual or group of individuals would invest in a project of a company current located in the Special Economic Zone of Rwanda. Special Economic Zone refers to an area which is geographically specified and physically secured, under the control of a single body (Dunning 2012). The Special Economic Zone provides certain incentives, in addition to more liberal and simple economic regulations for organizations to locate physically and conduct their business within the zone. Rwanda Special Economic Zone program is prepared to address some of the private sector hurdles domestically like, availability of land for industrial as well as for commercial purposes, availability of energy and the cost incurred for consumption, problem regarding availability of transport for travelling purposes, access to the market for understanding the psyche of customers, their perceptions and their views on the new investor and finally availability of skilled workforce (Griffin and Pustay 2012).

The company considered for the preparation of this report is Albert Supplies Ltd, an apparel manufacturing concern, which has been operating in The Special Economic Zone of Rwanda since 2016. The director of the company, Albert Nsengiyumv had said that the factory would produce all different kinds of quality control of the highest order and also provide employment to 2000 people. The initial investment in the factory for commencing their operations was 10 Billion Rwandan Franc and they had plans for launching their finished products in the market by July this year (Wild, Wild and Han 2014).

The report would consider various factors which investors who are looking to invest in the company’s projects need to take care of. On the initial front, the important thing for every investor, who is looking to invest in the project of an organization away from the country would be to scan the environment through PESTLE Analysis. PESTLE refers to different factors which are indirectly involved in influencing any business and making great impact on the activities (Folsom et al. 2012). This is nothing but an opportunity to go deep into the business by looking into different aspects like Political, Environmental, Social, Technological, Economical and Legal. All these factors are crucial from the perspective of any individual, willing to invest in companies abroad, to understand how the factors play significant role in influencing the business outcomes and competition (Hamilton and Webster 2015). This gives investors clear picture of how to go about in tuning themselves as per the scenarios regarding the factors. Porter’s Five Forces Model is another extremely crucial aspect to understand how things stand when individuals are about to invest in projects of a foreign company in a foreign land. The five forces include, Bargaining Power of Buyers, Bargaining Power of Suppliers, Threat of New Entrant, Threat of Substitute Products and Rivalry within the industry which would impact the environment greatly and deviation from the norm would lead to correction. Finally, there would be a SWOT Analysis, whereby the internal and external factors of the organization, Albert Supplies Ltd would be looked into. The internal factors are Strengths and Weaknesses, which are internal to the organization. The external analysis of Opportunities and Threats will provide the organization with ample scope to target the right customers, seek for areas to focus upon for acquiring more companies, thereby expand the business (Zikmund et al. 2013). Threats refer to the level of competition, which an organization can face from existing businesses and find ways out to cope up with the challenges.

Factors to Consider Before Investing

Albert Supplies Ltd is a local apparel manufacturing company, who has been operating in the Special Economic Zone of Rwanda since 2016. The initial investment which the company had made for setting up the factory was of 10 Billion Rwandan Franc. The intention was to manufacture clothes of high quality and provide employment for close to 2000 people (Boone 2016). The director of Albert Supplies, Albert Nsengiyumva had talked of the possibility for the company to launch their finished products in the market by July, this year. The company has been on the Apparel Manufacturing Zone of Rwanda, which occupies around 5 hectares of land in the Kigali Special Economic Zone (Behuria 2017).

Rwandan Special Economic Zone is set up for encouraging investors to come over and start off business activities, as a result of which the whole economy of Rwanda can flourish. Their SEZ program is designed to take care of some of the private sector problems domestically, such as availability of lands for industrial as well as for commercial purposes, cost incurred for energy consumption, the limitations of conveyance for travelling purposes, access to the market for acquiring of right customers and retailers to get their products sold and availability of skilled workforce (NISHYIREMBERE 2014).

The authority responsible for regulating the zone’s activities, is an independent entity, who frames the rules and regulations, gives proper designations to the lands lying within the purview of Special Economic Zone, then coordinating all the activities with Government agencies to provide license and permissions (Kigali and DISTRICT 2016).

There is a developer, who belongs to the private sector concern, having got license from the regulator, holds the responsibility to absorb the risk as well as the financing of designing and also constructing all the required Special Economic Zone infrastructure along with the facilities (HABAGUHIRWA 2017). The Kigali Special Economic Zone’s developer, Prime Economic Zone Secretariat, also happens to be the owner of the land and hence they get into the agreements for sale with different users.

The day to day management of the zone is taken care of by the Regulator licensed, private sector concern, which also provides support facilities in a specialized manner along with other services (Hussain and Kimuli 2012).

Country Risk is always involved whenever a new business is about to be set up in a new region. These risks can be taken care of through analyzing different factors. PESTLIED Analysis is a tool to analyze and screen the macro environment by looking into Political, Environmental, Social, Technological, Legal and Economical. Detailed analysis of all the factors would invariably help an individual to understand how the factors, which are outside the purview of an organization, impact the overall business activities (Sichei and Kinyondo 2012). The analysis is as follows:

PESTLE Analysis

Political –

President is the Head of State of Rwanda, who exercises his power and influence on the political system of country. He formulates the political policies in association with the cabinet, having command over the armed forces, shows mercy, signs various presidential orders and issues declarations in case of any emergency as well as wars (Farole and Winkler 2012). The President gets elected every 7 years by way of voting, who in turn gives appointment to the Prime Minister and all other members as per the requirement. The President and the Rwanda Patriotic Front have gone ahead to make significant progress to reduce poverty and encourage economic development as a part of the vision to transform Rwanda. The need was pressed upon especially after the genocide which had taken place in the year 1994 (Andoh-Baidoo, Osatuyi and Kunene 2014). The ambitious plans of the government to pave the way for country’s economic development and growth, will go a long way to provide enough encouragement to any foreign investor, who is willing to start off with investment on certain projects of a company (Aziz and Makkawi 2012). The tax regulations are favourable for foreign investment, with relaxations in import and export policies, thereby making things extremely attractive for the investors (Tuomi 2012).

Economic –

Rwanda’s development goals on a long-term basis are formulated through a strategic plan set through ‘Vision 2020’. The strategy seeks for transformation of the country towards a service related and one based on knowledge from lower income, agricultural economy (Farla 2014). This, according to the Government would make the country achieve middle income status by the year 2020. Rwanda’s investment is dependent on foreign aid, which is currently lagging behind. The country has maintained strong economic growth with an average over 7% on an annual basis for a period of 5 years from 2010 to 2015. This maintenance of GDP around 7% for five years had seen a decline in the year 2016, when it had come down to 5.9%. This had happened primarily because agricultural productivity had taken a hit as certain parts of the country were drought stricken.

Investors have faced problems regarding irregular application of incentives on taxes and import duties and termed these as major challenges of doing businesses in Rwanda (James 2013). In case of investing in Albert Supplies Ltd, which has been operating in the Special Economic Zone, these problems are taken care of. Special Economic Zone offers various incentives on taxes and relaxation on certain rules and regulations. Other benefits which investors looking to invest in Albert Supplies Ltd, can avail are import substitution, increase tax revenue through tax base expansion, thus leading to a reduction of budget deficit (Rothaermel 2015).

Porter’s Five Forces Model

All these economic factors are critical to form an analysis and take appropriate action on the part of the foreign investors.

Social –

Society is the basis through which any business can grow and flourish but the first and foremost thing for a foreign investor would be to understand the customer base (Brooks and Simon 2012). Taking account of the demographics, related to the customer profile, with respect to their age, occupation, income levels, purchasing power will always help provide businesses with relevant information about the type of customers, which exist in the region (Ruigrok and Van Tulder 2013). Accordingly they target their products to the right customer segment after making considerations of their purchase patterns. This report has talked about individuals looking to invest in a company’s project, which has been operating in the Special Economic Zone of Rwanda (Ruigrok and Van Tulder 2013). So, understanding the social aspects related to the customer is important to strategize ways through which prices get formulated and right targeting options are implemented. Albert Supplies Ltd is into manufacturing of apparels and they play a significant role in boosting the manufacturing industry, so investing in a project of an established business like Albert Supplies would allow the society to get upgrade through better availability of different kinds of apparels (Mighty 2015).

Technology –

Next comes the need to look into the technological aspect of Rwanda, which would also have significant influence on foreign investors aiming to conduct businesses in the region. As a part of Government’s plans to transform Rwanda into a technical hub, they had initiatied five year plans by setting  up a National Information and Communication Technology (Bauer, Dehning and Stratopoulos 2012). The first five year plan had started off in the region from the year 2000 to 2005, primarily focused on creation of policies in line with the initiatives. The next set of five year plan, which commenced from 2006 till 2010, focused on building the foundation for Information and Communication Technology, which including laying down cables of fibre-optic (Polowczyk 2012). The third had run from 2011 till 2015, aimed to increase the speed for introduction of services to avail new advent of technology, which had convinced the authorities to push Rwanda above all other rivals in the region. Currently they are in the fourth five year plan which will continue till the year 2020. This will take care of lower level of skilled personnel which exist in the region and have highly skilled scientists and technicians to fulfill the requirements of the economy (RWANDA and MBABAZI 2012).

SWOT Analysis

The investors, looking to invest in a project of Albert Supplies Ltd should be wary of getting into their workforce, technically skilled personnel to carry out different activities in an efficient manner. They should have a clear understanding on how to use technology in a proper manner for reaching out to the suppliers and customers in short time, incurring less expense (Kariuki et al. 2014). To get technologically upgraded, the need of the hour is to understand the general usage of technology done by the consumers of that region. Once the investors are aware of the kind of technology usage of the customers in their daily lives, they would be able to reach out to the probable and prospective customers through messages, send across pmails regarding promotional offers through mails and short message service facilities over phones (Bienen and Ciuriak 2015).

Legal –

There are always some legal implications which businessmen need to consider before setting up a business and also they need to abide by certain rules and regulations applicable for specific type of business in a particular region. Rwandan law specifies that foreign investors should be treated equally with regard to taxes along with getting access to licenses, procurement and approvals (James 2013).  In the current scenario, Albert Supplies Ltd has been operating in the Special Economic Zone of Rwanda and hence they are entitled to receive certain benefits with regard to relaxation of tax laws, getting skills upgraded for the employees with transfer of technology, getting an increase in the revenue generation from taxes by getting an expanded tax base (Woolfrey 2013). The system which has been implemented for taking care of the legal aspects, is completely transparent and maintain consistency with the international norms and standards.

The legal system of Rwanda is based on Belgian Civil law system. The legal framework was renovated the year, 2002 and the introduction of constitution took place in 2003. Rwanda joined the Commonwealth six years later, in the year 2009, hence the country has legal system which is hybrid in nature, with a mix of both civil and common law (Jouanjean Mendez-Parra and te Velde 2015). The Investment Promotion Law was introduced in the year 2015 to come up with really attractive investment schemes. The new law implemented offers rights and guarantees in great detail, offering qualified and registered investors, incentives on both fiscal and non-fiscal front. This helps to obtain the certificate of investment in an easier manner and also in very less time.  This new law helps in promoting and facilitating investment in the region of Rwanda. This provides an excellent opportunity for foreign investors, who are willing to invest in the region, to get encouraged by the fact that all sectors of the business are open to private investment, irrespective of the origin.

Economic Factors

International-

International factors include, being aware of the exchange rates which exist in the particular country, where the investment would be made on a particular business (Porter and Heppelmann 2014). Proper research should be done in order to gather relevant information on the scenario which is present in the country, as that might affect the smooth running of the business in the region. Different rules apply in different regions and the most important thing to consider for anyone looking to invest and be successful, is to be aware of all the rules, regulations and restrictions (Nag, Han and Yao 2014).

Environmental –

Environmental aspect is another important consideration which foreign investors need to make before starting off with their investment in the project of a company (Antony 2012). The most important criteria which any investor needs to fulfill, while trying to invest in a company’s project in Rwanda, is of carrying out an Environmental Impact Assessment before going on to receive a certificate of clearance from the Rwanda Development Board. The Board is a Government Department which integrates every government agency, who is responsible to attract, retain and facilitate investments in the economy of Rwanda (Selaya and Sunesen 2012). Within the board, includes various agencies who are responsible for registration of businesses, promote investment, seeking environmental clearance and many other related functions. Any foreign investor who is looking to come over and invest in any project of any particular organization, understanding these fundamental aspects of environment, which has a big say in activities related to investment, is extremely important (Boone 2016).

The natural environment also needs to be taken into account by anyone looking to invest in a totally different region, keeping in mind their type of business and lining that up with the kind of climatic conditions which prevail in that region (Jefremovas 2012). The temperatures generally hover between 16 and 17 degree Celsius in regions of high altitude, 18 and 21 degree Celsius in Central Plateau and between 20 and 24 degree Celsius in lowlands of Eastern and Western Regions. Keeping these temperature fluctuations in mind, the investors who will invest in the projects of apparel manufacturing concern, Albert Supplies Ltd, would be able to target those products, which would be suitable for the customers to try out in the specific climatic condition (Görg, Hanley and Seric 2015). This customization on the part of the investors would help to seek out more people and increase the customers’ loyalty towards the organization. This will help in making the business more potent and help in the growth and development.

Societal Analysis

Demography-

Understanding the demography of a new region is an essential consideration which foreign investors should make before embarking on starting the new venture. The population of Rwanda is among the highest in the Sub-Saharan Africa region. There are mainly three ethnic groups, namely Hutus, Tutsis and Bantu, with the Hutus forming the major part of the population. The important thing for any investor would be to understand the culture and people’s preferences, accordingly the investors in Albert Supplies Ltd would be able to target the right group of customers for selling their stuffs, generate revenue and earn profit.          

Albert Supplies Limited company is under the manufacturing industry. There are certain opportunities and threats involved with businesses carried under each and every sector. Similar is the scenario for the manufacturing industry, where definite opportunities and threats exist. The details are mentioned below:

Opportunities –

The opportunities for a manufacturing industry lie in the areas specific to technology and bio-technology areas. These segments attract higher profit margins as they are growth oriented. Moreover, the market segments are dependent on application of knowledge, where highly skilled workforce is required to carry out the specific activities. This is where, Rwanda Government’s emphasis on making the country equipped with skilled workforce comes into play (Walton 2014). The more technologically equipped, Rwanda would become, the more opportunities they would provide for manufacturing industries to come over, invest and prosper. The manufacturing sector of Rwanda is small but they are growing in a steady rate of 7%. The different policies and strategies have been developed by formulating National Industrial Policy and National Export Strategy, primarily developed to increase growth in industrial and export fronts (Mann and Berry 2016).

Threats-

Threats for the manufacturing industry which lie among developed nations, is from countries offering low wages.  The low wages offered to employees in certain places, make things difficult for employees working in developed countries to counter and hence, this leads to either closure of organizations or get themselves shifted to places having cheap labour (Singh 2014). Threats even lie from new entrant into the business conducted in this industry, as certain incentives are offered by Rwanda Government in the Special Economic Zone for attracting investors to conduct their business in the region. Individuals who are willing to invest in the projects of Albert Supplies Ltd need to make provisions for the lurking threats from existing businesses, involved in similar kind of projects to be in proper shape to tackle any unforeseen circumstances.

Country Risk Analysis

Michael Porter had put out a framework or tool to analyze competition of a business in the year 1979 and thereby understand how the competitive forces affect an industry. The framework looks into the five forces that take care of the intensity involved in a competitive manner and also measure the industry’s profitability. The greater the strength of the forces influencing the industry, the lesser is the profitability for that industry. The job of every strategist is to identify the factors affecting the industry in general, get an idea about the strengths and weaknesses and work on them to secure a firm position for the company in that industry. The five forces are now discussed in great detail:

Threat of new entrants:

The every first force talks about the ease or the difficulty with which a firm can enter into a particular industry. If an industry is profitable and entry into the industry is relatively easier, then that invites more such similar entries and soon the intensity of rivalry picks up (Calabrese, Papadavid and Tyson 2017). Profits tend to decrease as and when more and more companies tend to fight for grabbing the same market share. Hence, the need arises for the organizations, currently into the industry to create really high barriers so that new companies are prevented from entering. Threat of new entrants is really high particularly in some cases like:

a) When the initial capital requirement for entering into the market is low.

b) There is not much retaliation from the established companies.

c) If there are no patents, reputations for the companies or they do not possess any renowned brand.

d) Government regulations are not applicable or are stringent enough.

e) If the cost, to be incurred by a firm looking for a switch to other industry, is low.

f) Customer loyalty is missing.

g) There is very little difference between the quality of products or the features they possess.

h) Easily achievable economies of scale.

In this current scenario, the imperative thing for individuals looking to invest in Albert Supplies Ltd is to get an overview of other players in the market, who are into the business of dealing with the same set of products.

Bargaining Power of Suppliers:

The next force is the bargaining power of suppliers. This implies that if the bargaining power is strong, then that would allow suppliers to sell products which are either highly priced or are in possession of raw materials which are of really low quality, to the buyers (Kariuki et al. 2014). This is where the profits of the firms get affected as they need to pay more for the materials purchased. The bargaining power of suppliers are strong when:

a) Buyers are more as compared to the suppliers

b) Very few substitutes for the raw materials which exist

c) Scarce resources are held by the suppliers.

d) Have to pay a high price when someone is looking for a switch in the raw materials.

For investing in a project of the Manufacturing Concern, Albert Supplies Ltd, as a foreign investor, determining the strategy for pricing becomes a necessity because a manufacturing unit would always want to set the price for the retailers to sell in the market. This will result in the standardization of prices across the location. The prices should neither be too high nor be too less (Ggombe and Newfarmer 2017). If the prices are too high, then a company would never be able to reach out to the mass but will only have to focus on niche customers but on the other hand, if the prices are low, then that would lead to customers thinking about the fact that the quality of the products has been compromised. Thus a moderate price should be set and that should also be followed by the investors.

Bargaining Power of Buyers-

Buyers have every right to demand for lowering the price of goods, which they are willing to buy or seek for the highest quality of goods from the producers. This happens due to the higher bargaining power which they possess. When prices are on the lower side, the revenues earned by the producers are also low, whereas on the other hand, higher production costs are raised through higher quality of goods (Brooks and Simon 2012). Strong bargaining powers are exercised by the buyers when:

a) Bulk buying takes place or provides customers with many points from where they could access the products.

b) Less number of buyers in the market.

c) Low switching costs for changing suppliers.

d) When there are availability of substitutes.

e) The buyers are sensitive to price changes.

This force has a big say in influencing business decisions of any organization in any industry. While making investing in any of the projects of Albert Supplies, understanding the buyers potential is very important. This would give them an insight into how to go about in targeting them, which products should they focus upon and consider for getting them sold by satisfying the customers’ needs and demands. Through this they would be able to get an idea about the income level of the customers.

Threat Of Substitute Goods-

This force becomes a threat when there are plenty of choices as substitute goods with enticing prices or of high quality and also when the buyers can move from one service or product to another by incurring very little cost. Thus, either the company has to maintain their quality or provide products with attractive prices. The apparel manufacturing company of Albert Supplies would be under threat, so long as there are substitute goods available and prices are charged on a lower level (Gathani and Stoelinga 2012). They need to make sure that the products offered by them are either of good quality or are moderately priced so that replacing the products with similar line of products with added features would be tough for them.

Rivalry Among Existing Competitors-

The basic determinant of how as an industry, can exist among the large group of other industries as competitors is the extent of rivalry which exists among them. Rivalry takes place in quest for allowing organizations to secure the top spot as per service and tasks. The greater the competition, greater becomes the rivalry among organizations, which ultimate results lower profit margins. The intensity of the rivalry among existing competitors rises under the following conditions:

1. a) When there is existence of large number of competitors
2. b) Companies cannot exit easily due to high exit barriers
3. c) Industry growth is on the slower side or is absolutely negative.
4. d) There is less differentiation among the products; hence substitutes can easily take their place
5. e) Size of the competitors is almost equal, as per the number of employees, the revenue they generate and the area in which they operate.
6. f) Customer loyalty is low as due to the existence of large number of competitive organizations, they can easily look to switch businesses if their needs and demands are not met.

So, any individual investor or group of individual investors looking for investing in an organization under a particular industry, need to take this into consideration and aim to set up their unit where there is less competition. In that situation, they would be able to operate in a free manner without any chance of getting their business activities hampered due to a large presence of competitors. Due to this, they can expect more customers to be loyal towards the services rendered by them, if they keep on providing quality products and services on a consistent basis over long periods of time.

Thus, Porter’s Five Forces Model helps investors to strategize the business activities according to the five influencing forces that are bound to affect any business, if they are not take into consideration and certain appropriate provisions are not being accounted for.

Albert Supplies Ltd is a local apparel manufacturing firm of Rwanda, which had set up a factory in the region’s Special Economic Zone, with the purpose of producing high quality cotton and leather garments, as well as from other raw materials. The investment made by the company for setting up the factory was 10 Billion Rwandan Franc. Through this project, the company intended to not only produce quality products but also give employment to 2000 people. Having set up the factory in the Special Economic Zone of Rwanda, they could avail certain benefits related to tax incentives, relaxation in government rules and regulations, get access to skilled labour. Most importantly, the project was the result of constant encouragement from the government of Rwanda to let investors come over and spread their businesses (Srivastava, Franklin and Martinette 2013). Through this initiative, the kind of employment Albert Supplies Ltd aimed to provide was really commendable, as that promise was significant for the development of the region of Rwanda.

Another project of the company is their plan to export textile garments abroad to various places in The United States Of America and Europe. The company intends to provide employment to almost 1000 local people of Rwanda and has plans to increase the local staff strength to around 25000. Government will obviously play a vital role to provide the much needed support in funding the requisite amount needed to train the staff and make them equip with the kind of activities they need to perform as a part of their job.

SWOT refers to the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats of an organization and the tool is a planning method for understanding the firm’s position in a structured manner. The analysis of the four aspects would help frame out future plans on how to go about in chalking out the progress path of the company. Strength and Weakness are internal to an organization, whereas Opportunities and Threats are external elements. The detailed description of the SWOT Analysis for Albert Supplies Ltd is given below:

Strengths-

Albert Supplies Ltd is an apparel manufacturing company, who had started    investing in the Special Economic Zone of Rwanda, with the objective of providing employment and also in turn improves the overall growth of the manufacturing sector in the region. The company’s strength lies in having skillful labour that would be able to perform the activities in an efficient manner (Schrager and Madansky 2013). Along with the strength of the employees, another strong point for the company is the technological advancement, through which they can avail the latest machines and equipment. For this, the Rwandan Government had always stressed upon getting the city upgraded into a hi-tech one.

 Weakness –

The company is based in a region where majority of the population is engaged in Agriculture and Rwanda is basically a poor country. So generating the financial capacity to acquire machines with latest technology is a matter of grave concern for Albert Supplies. The time consumed for getting on board latest machinery would lead to loss of production and thereby lead to loss of revenue. Another weakness for the company is that they are confined to the region of Rwanda and has not got exposed to the outside world. Due to this reason, the company might miss targeting many potentially sound regions, which could give ample opportunities to the company to get their products sold and increase their revenue base (Ho 2012). The management of the company could look to carry out promotional campaigns for letting people know, what the organization is all about so that they do not miss out on opportunities to target the right customers.

Opportunities –

Opportunities refer to the company’s scope for possible expansion in areas, where they have not touched upon, which would give them chance to acquire skillful labor, get acquainted with innovative technology and hence lead to increase in revenue. Albert Supplies, being an apparel manufacturing firm, they can look to increase their products base, which would provide more options for the customers to avail. They can also go ahead and seek for getting people trained on latest technology and machinery, which would allow the employees to understand the changing trends and be prepared to handle unforeseen circumstances which can come along the way (Fleisher and Bensoussan  2015).

Threats-

The main threat for Albert Supplies is the existence of established firms in the Rwandan market. The firms who have been operating in the region for quite sometime would always be in a better position to tackle unforeseen circumstances due to their expertise and innovative methods of doing business (Sichei and Kinyondo 2012). In addition to these aspects, the firms already have a customer base, which makes things easier for them acquire customers, get their products sold and generate more revenue. This is where, Albert Supplies would fall behind and be in a precarious situation to compete on a similar base with the established firms.

Conclusion

The report concludes that before making a foreign investment in any project of an organization, there are certain factors which the investors need to consider. Considerations need to be made on the basis of scanning the environment by looking into the risks involved within the country. Feasibility of the project can be assessed easily through analyzing different aspects related to political scenario, economic policies that are in place, type of people living in the society and how the business would be able to meet up with their needs and demands. This report has also looked into the SWOT analysis of the company considered for the preparation of this assignment and that has given clarity to the investor regarding the areas where they could focus upon and build on the strengths. This has also helped in assessing the reasonability of the investment, based on the risks which have been discussed about.

The investment, in Albert Supplies Ltd’s project of the new factory outlet in the Special Economic Zone of Rwanda aiming to manufacture high quality clothes with cotton and other raw materials, is a reasonable one because of the potential, which the region holds. Though Rwanda is a poor country and around 90% of the people is engaged in agriculture, still by keeping in mind the Government’s initiative to allow manufacturing units to come over and invest in the Special Economic Zone, this provides an excellent opportunity to penetrate the untapped market. Only when industries get set, gradual progress and development would take place in any region. Similar is the case for Rwanda, where potential for growth and expansion is huge, as number of industries that exist in the region is less. So this gives investors in Albert Supplies, ample opportunity to seize the opportunity.

The group has come up with the following recommendations based on the conclusion drawn from the report:

1. In-depth research should be carried out on all aspects before deciding to go ahead and invest in a foreign company.
2. In order to minimize the risks, which might arise in foreign investment due to unfamiliarity of the region, not being aware of the culture and trends in the industry, investors can look to invest in some other project of the company simultaneously. This will automatically lead to diversification of the portfolio and help in mitigation of the risks.
3. Investors can aim to hire local experts to accurately deal with the rules and regulations that exist for investing in a company of different region.
4. To understand the tax benefits and the appropriate provisions which prevail for the business in the Special Economic Zone, investors can hire professionals in order to avoid wastage of money.

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