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{
"id": 240940,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/240940/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Angwenyi",
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"speaker": {
"id": 326,
"legal_name": "Jimmy Nuru Ondieki Angwenyi",
"slug": "jimmy-angwenyi"
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"content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, the liberalisation of trade in this country without setting up proper systems has destroyed our industries and trade in general. I, therefore, would like to suggest that this Ministry revives the industries which have been destroyed through haphazard liberalisation. The Ministry should revive RIVATEX and Kikomi industries, so that we can create jobs for our people and have technological development. The Industrial and Commercial Development Corporation (ICDC) used to support our indigenous industrialists and traders. The Kenya National Trading Corporation (KNTC) also used to help our people to engage in international trade. However, these two institutions have gone under. The KNTC has collapsed. What we have are trading companies that are not owned by indigenous Kenyans, and they are siphoning off lots of our foreign exchange, thereby destroying our economy. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we used to have the Joint Loans Board which is not existing any more. I would suggest that the funds that were being allocated to the Joint Loans Board is given to the Kenya Industrial Estates, which has been revived. I thank the managers and the board of the Kenya Industrial Estates for reviving that parastatal, which is now providing services to Kenyans by developing small-scale industries. Mr. Speaker, Sir, may I also suggest that this Ministry should develop training institutions that train our youth in international trade. Recently, we went to China as Members of the Departmental Committee on Finance, Planning and Trade. I was surprised to find young people from Nigeria, Cameroon and even Mali in China trying to buy goods from China to go and sell in their own countries. If we train our youth, they will be able to conduct that kind of business. They would go to China or even to USA, and make money for themselves, provide employment for others and develop our economy. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we know that the WTO negotiations may have collapsed. But we must set up systems to guard against the negative impact of that collapse. Very soon, we might find it difficult to export our tea, coffee or even sugar, unless we set up a system to export our produce. We could do that, for example, by adding value to our produce. I recently learned that Lipton company has established a factory to add value to our tea in Dubai. If this Ministry was serious, they could have negotiated with the Lipton company, and instead of setting up a value-adding factory in Dubai, they could have done it in Kenya where the tea comes from. As you know, our tea is of very high grade. Normally, it is used for blending other inferior tea from other countries. But we do not get the value of our high grade tea because we export it raw to Europe for them to make money out of our tea. The same applies to coffee. Germany is the biggest exporter of finished coffee in the world. But Germany does not have one shrub of a coffee tree. They import all their coffee from other countries and high quality coffee from Kenya which they use to blend the inferior coffee from other countries and export it. That way, they reap from where they did not sow. Therefore, the Ministry of Trade and Industry should concentrate and focus on assisting indigenous Kenyans to develop factories where we add value to our produce and July 26, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2389 reap maximum profits. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we should address the issue of trade attaches in countries that are important to our country. We should have a very experienced trade attache', for example, in Pakistan, which is the biggest importer of our tea. We should have an experienced trade attache' in Brussels to take care of our exports to the European Union. The same applies to the UK. In fact, our diplomats should be people with a trade background so that they can promote trade between us and the countries they are posted to. If you go through our balance of trade with most countries of the world, you will find that it does not favour this country. For example, the balance of trade between Kenya and South Africa is hugely in favour of South Africa and yet, we do not have a trade attache' in South Africa. South Africa cannot import tea from Kenya and yet, we import eggs from them. We should have reciprocal trade. If people cannot buy our agricultural products, we should not import their agricultural products either. Tit for tat is a fair game. In so doing, we can improve the economy of this country. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I am sure that if we give this Ministry support by approving their Budget and demanding that they be allocated adequate resources, we can improve our international trade and balance of trade and eventually our economy. Finally, I will ask the Minister to negotiate with the USA so that they can extend the AGOA agreement to make sure that it is indigenous Kenyans who benefit from that agreement, instead of foreigners who are stationed at the EPZs who take advantage of the AGOA agreement. With those remarks, I beg to support."
}