Wednesday, June 9, 2010

WOO INVESTORS

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 9 - Prime Minister Raila Odinga wants Kenya’s Consuls abroad to woo locals in the Diaspora to plough back their savings into the economy, so as to promote investment in the country.

He told diplomats who paid him a courtesy call at his Treasury offices to encourage Kenyans within their respective mission stations to exploit the untapped investment opportunities in their motherland.

The Premier said the over Sh75 billion which Kenyans in the Diaspora reportedly wire-back to relatives at home on annual basis could be scaled up and channelled for development purposes.

He also tipped the envoys to extensively sell the country to advance direct foreign investment and ensure that local goods for export fetched better prices in international market.

Mr Odinga informed the diplomats who jetted into the country for an orientation conference on government foreign policy that the coalition no longer pegged her development prospects to donor Aid.

He said the new administration adopted a paradigm shift from the old tradition of over dependency on foreign aid and had instead embarked on commercial and industrial partnership ventures with former donors to bridge the void.

“We want to completely do away with the aids dependency syndrome so that we advance economic diplomacy in our foreign missions to encourage trade and investment in the country,” he told the newly appointed envoys.

Mr Odinga reiterated that the coalition government was committed with the ongoing reform agenda and was upbeat to see the proposed Constitution sail through the August 4 referendum.

He said the new laws were tailored to lay the foundation for an effective National Integration Policy to avert recurrence of events that characterised the aftermath of the 2007 general election in the country.

The Premier revealed that the coalition planned to introduce at least 73 legislations to anchor the reforms once the proposed Constitution was endorsed and entrenched after the referendum.

He told the consuls to openly speak of the challenges afflicting the coalition arrangement of governance saying the Kenyan case was not an exception.

Mr Odinga was however quick to assured the international community that the coalition partners had learnt to co operate with a common purpose for the good of the nation.

He announced that the sound working relation between the coalition partners has seen the government initiate various reform programmes in the Police, Judiciary, Land and the Civil Service to improve provision of services to the public.

Mr Odinga said plans to mitigate the effects of climate change were underway as efforts to adapt environmentally friendly practices to contain the impact of the global phenomena were rolled out.

“We want to go green by the year 2017 and that is why we have embarked on expansion of geothermal power production in Rift Valley where experts say the generation potential slightly exceeds 7,000 MW,” he said.

The Premier said pilot projects for generation of wind, solar and biofuel energy were commissioned to complement the widespread hydro power based productions whose potentials were dictated by changing climatic pattern.

Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Watengula was present during the briefing with the honorary consuls.

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