Jay456watt
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- Aug 23, 2016
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Kenya, east Africa’s most developed economy, is less dependent on commodities than many countries on the continent and grew by nearly 6 per cent last year. Nevertheless, in 2015, Kenya imported $5.9bn worth of Chinese goods, much of it steel and equipment for a $4bn Chinese-built railway, but shipped only $99m of goods in return, according to Cari. President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya has called on China to rebalance an increasingly skewed trade relationship between Africa and the rising superpower, arguing that Beijing must do more to tackle a widening trade deficit.
Mr Kenyatta, one of only two African leaders to attend this weekend’s Beijing forum of China’s flagship Belt and Road regional infrastructure programme, said ahead of the gathering: “Those of us there, representing Africa, will be pushing . . . to increase our trade into China.” Referring to concerns in parts of Africa that China was recreating colonial trading patterns by flooding the continent with manufactured goods, extracting raw materials and gobbling up construction contracts, Mr Kenyatta said that Beijing was “beginning to appreciate that, if their win-win strategy is going to work, it must mean that, just as Africa opens up to China, China must also open up to Africa”. Under its Belt and Road initiative, China is seeking to refashion the ancient Silk Road linking Asia with Europe and Africa, including Kenya on the Indian Ocean coast. China overtook the US as Africa’s biggest trading partner in 2009. Mr Kenyatta said Kenya intended to emulate Ethiopia by inviting Chinese manufacturers to the country. As Chinese wages rise, African leaders see attracting jobs in labour-intensive industries such as textiles, shoes and agro-processing as one way of tackling the trade imbalance. Mr Kenyatta said the establishment of special economic zones, modelled on China and built close to new, mostly Chinese-built, transport links, was “critical for job creation in Kenya”. The president denied Kenya was taking on too much Chinese debt to finance what critics have suggested are white elephant projects that will never pay for themselves. His government borrowed $3.6bn for the Mombasa-Nairobi leg of a new rail line, due to open next month, which Mr Kenyatta said would eventually extend to Uganda, Rwanda and even the Atlantic coast in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
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Mr Kenyatta, one of only two African leaders to attend this weekend’s Beijing forum of China’s flagship Belt and Road regional infrastructure programme, said ahead of the gathering: “Those of us there, representing Africa, will be pushing . . . to increase our trade into China.” Referring to concerns in parts of Africa that China was recreating colonial trading patterns by flooding the continent with manufactured goods, extracting raw materials and gobbling up construction contracts, Mr Kenyatta said that Beijing was “beginning to appreciate that, if their win-win strategy is going to work, it must mean that, just as Africa opens up to China, China must also open up to Africa”. Under its Belt and Road initiative, China is seeking to refashion the ancient Silk Road linking Asia with Europe and Africa, including Kenya on the Indian Ocean coast. China overtook the US as Africa’s biggest trading partner in 2009. Mr Kenyatta said Kenya intended to emulate Ethiopia by inviting Chinese manufacturers to the country. As Chinese wages rise, African leaders see attracting jobs in labour-intensive industries such as textiles, shoes and agro-processing as one way of tackling the trade imbalance. Mr Kenyatta said the establishment of special economic zones, modelled on China and built close to new, mostly Chinese-built, transport links, was “critical for job creation in Kenya”. The president denied Kenya was taking on too much Chinese debt to finance what critics have suggested are white elephant projects that will never pay for themselves. His government borrowed $3.6bn for the Mombasa-Nairobi leg of a new rail line, due to open next month, which Mr Kenyatta said would eventually extend to Uganda, Rwanda and even the Atlantic coast in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
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