Rwanda is a member of a number of global and regional organizations and treaties of interest to potential investors, including the following:

• The African Trade Insurance Agency (ATI)

• The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA)

• The East African Community

• The Cotonou Agreement between the European Union and African, Caribbean and Pacific States (ACP)

• The International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID)

• The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA)

• The Paris Convention on Intellectual Property, the Universal Copyright Convention and the Berne Copyright Convention

• The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)

• The World Trade Organization (WTO).

• Communaute Economique des Pays des Grand Lacs (CEPGL)

Rwanda has also signed several bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and double taxation treaties (DTTs).

The East African Community (EAC)

The East African Community (EAC) is the regional intergovernmental organization of the Republics of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania.

The treaty establishing the East African Community (EAC) was signed on 30 November 1999 and came into force on 7 July 2000 upon ratification by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

The Republic of Rwanda and the Republic of Burundi acceded to the EAC Treaty on 18th June 2007 and became full Members of the Community with effect from 1st July 2007.

With Rwanda, the EAC will offer investors a significant market of over 100 million consumers. Unlike other regional organizations in Africa, the EAC may actually move relatively quickly towards its goal of economic integration.

The EAC aims at widening and deepening co-operation among the Partner States in, among others, political, economic and social fields for their mutual benefit. To this extent the EAC countries established a Customs Union in 2005 and are working towards the establishment of a Common Market by 2010, subsequently a Monetary Union by 2012 and ultimately a Political Federation of the East African States.

The EAC treaty creates seven main organs to enable the Community to fulfill its mission, including the Summit (the highest organ of the Community), the East African Court of Justice, the East African Legislative Assembly and the Secretariat. The Community is headquartered in Arusha and its official language is English, although it recognizes Kiswahili as a lingua franca.

More on EAC visit www.eact.int