Kenya, China Sign Six Key Agreements to Boost Bilateral Ties
Kenya and China on Thursday signed six key bilateral agreements aimed at boosting ties between the two nations.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who is on a two-day official State visit to Kenya, oversaw the signing of the agreements alongside Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Raychelle Omamo.
The six deals include new partnerships in trade and agriculture where Kenya will export fish and avocados to the Chinese market. Also signed was a memorandum of understanding on strengthening investment cooperation in the digital economy between the countries.
Others include a handover certificate on Emergency Humanitarian Food Aid Program between China and Kenya and an agreement on Economic and Technical Cooperation.
Omamo and Wang also discussed the global Covid-19 situation, the joint efforts fighting the disease, as well as consolidating economic collaboration during the pandemic and post-Covid-19 period.
During the signing in Mombasa, Wang announced that China would give Kenya a Sh51 billion grant, donate 10 million Covid-19 vaccines, and 12,000 tonnes of rice to help needy families weather the pandemic.
China further pledged to establish a working group to look into issues of tariff and non-tariff barriers in order to address the trade deficit that is in favor of China.
“We agreed to work together to promote investments from Chinese enterprises in areas of agro-processing, textiles and apparels, leather processing, footwear, iron and steel and machinery, furniture and wood, electronic assembly, auto assembly, construction, pharmaceutical, oil, and gas,” CS Omamo noted.
Omamo and Wang also discussed collaboration in Big-data strategy, ICT hardware and software development, e-government and service delivery, cyber and information security and capacity building and technology transfer.
Comments (14)
Kenyan government, please deal with china with regards of other things except ICT, technology coz they will spy and hack those gov't data and wipe them all one day when we have disagreement. This is a fair WARNING
Way to go our govt our president Uhuru. Make Kenya great! Build markets create jobs and improve infrastructure! Every economy was built off debts. It doesn’t matter who our trading partners are as long as they are contributing in uplifting the economy of Kenya and the lives of her people. Let the rhetorical tangatanga led by the chief thief Ruto keep blowing hot air. They’ll never get anywhere after years of sabotaging you and the Kenyan economy to hoodwink the youth and poor for votes. He behaves like a wife who ran away and absconded her marital responsibility. Chenzi hiyo Ruto naharipia jina watu yetu kapisa!!!
Infrastructure? Road accident are killing people everywhere in Kenya.
Even in the most advanced countries accidents are killing people in thousands daily! Just google USA or China or UK road accidents on a daily basis and see what comes up.Not even comparable per capita relative to overall population.
Actually, Singapore has no foreign debt.
It took them a while to get there!
More loans more neocolonialism. China is outwitting all this shallow minded African countries. And they keep on taking bait
It’s not all Africans. It’s just Uhuru Kenyatta the sellout.
How about Zambia, Uganda and recently Tanzania. Maybe you need to read broadly
What finished products does Kenya sell overseas?
What raw products does Kenya import from wherever?
Such a simple approach grossly improves on forex, GDP and balance of trade.
You need NO PhD in economics to understand utility value nor value addition as taught in neanderthal schools.
For that reason, I fart in response to reasoned thinking from a greedy pool of African derelicts that thrive on monkey instincts.
Kenya does not have enough fish.
What exactly is being exported?
You and me to keep sending back dollars!!! Read the major source of dollars in Kenya lol!!!
Generally speaking, It makes sense to work with the chinese on development because they have a strong manufacturing and infrastructure sector, they have some of the best balance sheets in the world and to be fair they have been good economic development partners. Of course the loans are going to continue to be an issue that we have to grapple with. However when it comes to the military. We must not allow them to have military bases in Kenya. China is a dictatorship with an abysmal human rights record when it comes to the way that it has treated some of its minority populations. For examples the tibetans in Tibet and the Urghur muslims. When it comes to the military we should continue to work with the west that is britain and America. The main reason here is because Kenya already has a long history with these countries and they are Democracies. Democracies are full of checks and balances that we can always take advantage of when the need arises. This international political thinking also sets up a kind of check and balance on chinese power.
Very good analysis Kim.