Kenya woos Chinese investors
Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka. Photo/FILE
By VPPS
Posted Monday, May 28 2012 at 09:54
Posted Monday, May 28 2012 at 09:54
Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka has called on China to invest in Kenya's service sector including tourism, water, health, education and construction.
Mr Musyoka while addressing the opening ceremony of the Beijing International Fair on Trade in Services encouraged Chinese tourists and Chinese companies to explore Kenya and construct hotels, invest in water provision services, set up training institutions as well as investments in the financial services and health sectors.
"This trade fair comes at an opportune time to make us all refocus our attention in diversifying our export products as well as venturing into more service oriented trade," said Mr Musyoka. Read (VP in China to lobby for Unep office upgrade)
He said the forum should offer participants the opportunity to exchange information on how they could get positive outcomes of new technologies and innovation with a view to enhancing the volume of service exports in their respective countries.
Mr Musyoka said by embracing liberalisation in the services sector, many countries stand to enjoy the diverse benefits to consumers through access to better quality, competitive and cost effective services.
He said this would ensure improvement in the consumer’s purchasing power and higher standards of living.
"A case in point is the liberalisation of the communication services within the East African Community bloc, particularly mobile telephony, which has resulted in the significant increased access to efficient and affordable communication,” said Mr Musyoka.
Improved infrastructure and innovation
He noted that a critical contribution by Africa that has revolutionalised the way business is conducted is the money transfer system.
"This system has made money transfer more reliable, efficient and convenient especially to our rural population," he said.
Mr Musyoka said that the competitiveness of agricultural and manufacturing sectors heavily depends on the availability of efficient services sector and particularly infrastructure services, transport services and energy services.
“Trade in services has gained an important direct relationship with attracting foreign direct investments as most of the inflows are channelled through the service sector. Trade in services has beneficial effects on development and poverty alleviation,” he said.
Mr Musyoka said the fair should also review the implementation of strategies to improve the export of services by identifying challenges and possible solutions, discussing current issues and priorities that can promote service export as well as consideration of future prospects with a view to strengthening partnerships that will forge a foundation for future cooperation.
While opening the meeting, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said China was embracing more liberalisation policies in order to take leadership of global trade services.
“We invite foreign companies to invest more in the services sector in China and to more Chinese firms to set up regional headquarters in various parts of the world,” he said.
Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Zvangirai also attended the forum with participants drawn from across the globe.
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