Roundup: Broad Prospects for Sino-Kenyan Economic Cooperation

China and Kenya have witnessed a rapid expansion of trade and economic cooperation over the past decade, which will certainly have a bright future on the basis of principles of equality and mutual benefit as the two officials have predicted.

Statistics show that the volume of trade between the two countries exceeded over 105 million U.S. dollars in 1999, which ranked the third among 24 southern and eastern African countries in terms of trade with China.

China mainly imports cattle hides, aquatic products, pyrethrum and sisal hemp from Kenya, and exports to Kenya machinery and equipment, household appliances, farm tools, metal ware, textiles, chemicals, medicines, among others.

In order to further their businesses in Kenya, more than 30 Chinese companies have set up their offices in the east African country, with their operations mainly involved in telecommunications, computers, pesticides, textiles, farm machinery and other products.

They have so far undertaken up to 144 projects in Kenya with a total contractual value of some 600 million dollars. These projects cover a wide range of areas such as infrastructure, housing, highways, sports and medicine.

The International Sports Center named after Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi, which was built with financial and technical assistance from China, has become one of the largest and well-equipped sports complexes in Africa and also a symbol of friendship between the two peoples.

Moreover, the Chinese and Kenyan governments signed in Nairobi later last year an agreement on bilateral economic and technical cooperation, under which China will help Kenya build a 54-kilometer-long road in western part of Kenya.

President Moi has expressed his appreciation of high quality of roads and other projects built by Chinese companies while meeting with Chinese delegations on separate occasions.

He said China has played an important role in Kenya's economic development. It is his hope that more Chinese enterprises will come and invest in Kenya.

The Kenyan government is ready to provide foreign investors with friendly invested environment and guarantee that investors are engaged in their production and other commercial and trading activities in a free manner in the country, Moi said.

Officials from both countries also share the view that there is great potential for the two sides to enhance economic cooperation and trade.

At a reception marking the 51st anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China held at the Chinese Embassy here on September 26, Kenyan Minister for Information, Transport and Communications Musalia Mudavadi said that Kenya and China have taken commendable steps to further deepen their cordial and warm relations and China has become one of the leading partners of Kenya in its economic development.

There is tremendous potential in expanding the scope for cooperation and trade volume by exploring markets in both countries, he said.

Kassim Owango, chairman of the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, also urged more Chinese entrepreneurs to set up businesses in Kenya.

During his meeting with a group of Chinese businessmen from Fushun city in northeastern China, Owango said that Kenya needs China's food processing technology, especially the technologies and processes for canned fruits and vegetables as well as sugar milling.

As the friendly relations between Kenya and China have been at the optimum stage, he said, Chinese companies should seize this good opportunity to invest or build factories in Kenya in the field of food processing, and bring in their equipment and talents to develop its rich resources.

Zhu Xiaochuan, economic and commercial counsellor at the Chinese Embassy here, said that Kenya has concentrated its efforts to undertake economic reforms, privatize its state parastatals and open up to outside world its markets of telecommunications, finance, energy and tourism, thus providing new opportunities to entrepreneurs of the two countries to expand cooperation at multilevel.

Zhu said that the equipment and technology used in China's medium- and small-sized enterprises are applicable to the majority of African countries including Kenya.

Chinese enterprises are able to cooperate with their Kenyan counterparts in manufacturing daily necessities, electrical appliances or other products in forms of co-production and joint ventures.

They can also join their hands to explore the possibilities of cooperation in the areas of agriculture and farm produce processing, forestry, fishery and medicine.

The counsellor noted that the Kenyan government has firmly undertaken its commitment to the Free Trade Area of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa to be launched at the end of October this year.

He expressed the belief that the economic integration among the eastern and southern African countries has presented a broader arena for increasingly growing China-Kenya trade and economic cooperation.



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