Kenya, Singapore to shore up trade ties in ICT, horticulture
Kenya plans to use Singapore’s strategic location in South East Asia market as a gateway to grow expand exports destinations in the region of about 670 million people.
Singapore and Kenya have already entered into agreements to boost cooperation in ICT, climate change and skills development. Under ICT, the deal will facilitate cooperation on cybersecurity, digitisation of government services and ICT capacity building. The MoU on skills development will facilitate collaboration in human resource capacity building for civil servants and students.
Following bilateral engagement between Singapore and Kenya, President William Ruto said the move to anchor the East African nation trade network in Singapore is guided by his government’s commitment to expanding lucrative markets for its agricultural produce.
Dr Ruto said through Singapore Kenya would access South Asia, a region of 10 countries that offers Kenya a “unique and massive” market to sell its goods.
Further, he invited Singapore’s private sector to invest in Kenya’s under-exploited transport and logistics sectors.
“This will check the low trade volumes and scale up our investments, thereby reducing the current trade deficit with Singapore,” said Dr Ruto.
He made the remarks on Thursday at State House in Nairobi while addressing the media in the company of visiting Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who said: “Our ties have been growing. We will further this by pursuing more economic opportunities that will stimulate our shared prosperity.”
