The Republic of Kenya has said that throughout bilateral trade and private sector interventions they were hoping that the third summit would increase trade and economic development between its country and South Africa.

“We hope to have contributed meaningfully to the greater economy by increasing employment, transfer of technology, and exports thereby leading to expansion of the external trade and foreign exchange earnings,” Kenya High Commissioner Jean Njeri Kamau said speaking at the Kenya Trade Investment Summit held in Bryanston North of Johannesburg on Thursday.

Kamau said Kenya and South Africa occupy important geopolitical locations that provide opportunities not only for their own trade and development but also for collaboration in regional trade and investment.

She said since they held their first summit in September 2015 there have been significant changes and developments.

“This summit will provide an opportunity to build on the last two summits. More South African companies have the Kenya market and penetrated Kenya and expanded their businesses. We supported more outbound missions to South Africa in the areas of manufacturing and services,” said Kamau.

Cabinet Secretary Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kenya, Monica Juma added that the summit presents an excellent opportunity for networking and forging of strategic partnerships aimed at exploring the investment opportunities available in both Kenya and South Africa.

She said that the summit would hear information about the Kenya government’s priorities in the next five years, which present an excellent attraction for foreign direct investment.

Increasing the manufacturing share of the GDP from 9.2 percent to 15 percent and agro-processing to at least 50 percent of the total agricultural output; and providing affordable housing by building 500,000 affordable houses in five years across the country were some of the priorities by Kenya.

Kenya also wants to enhance food and nutrition security (FNS) through the construction of large scale multi-purpose and smaller dams for irrigation projects, construction of food storage facilities and implementation of high impact nutritional interventions and other FNS initiatives; and achieving 100 percent universal health coverage.

“Through the discussions and deliberations at this summit, I believe our two countries will increase trade and investment between our two nations,” said Juma.

“I would like to particularly reach out to members of the business community, as key trading partners, and encourages them to consider taking advantage of the mentioned investment opportunities and do business in Kenya.”

– African News Agency (ANA)

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