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"speaker_name": "Mr. Wambora",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to contribute to this very important Vote. I had a chance, with the Minister for Trade and Industry, to attend a Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) meeting in Lusaka in 2400 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 26, 2006 December, 2004. I also attended a meeting with him in Hong Kong in December, 2005. Therefore, I have no doubt in my mind that the Ministry is endowed with good leadership. I saw him providing leadership in Lusaka for COMESA and the World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in Hong Kong. He has taken advantage of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) effectively. I have seen a lot of pro-active action in it. However, I want to refer to one issue Prof. Anyang'-Nyong'o has mentioned about regional co-operation. It was in 1987 during the headship of my colleague here, Mr. M'Mukindia, when I was his Deputy Secretary there, when he told us to stop concentrating on Japan, Mauritius and elsewhere, but we begin to be a giant in the region. That is when the Ministry of Trade and Industry shifted its policy to be a regional power. Today, we are enjoying the advantages of that policy. Kenya today is a dominant force in the COMESA region. I think that is the way to go. I want to point out five challenges for the Ministry and suggest the way forward in those areas. The first challenge is the budget. My colleagues have talked about the budget not being adequate. I notice that the Development Vote has been allocated Kshs615 million, which includes travel for external trade. The Recurrent Vote has been allocated Kshs2.3 billion. To me, a total of Kshs2.9 billion for a critical Ministry like this one, is insufficient. I consider tourism, trade and industry to be critical sector of the economy. The Ministry being an economic Ministry must, definitely, enjoy a bigger budget in order to stimulate growth. The budget is relatively low. That is one challenge. I am sure, in future, the Government should look into this. Now that we will have a Parliamentary Budget Office before the next Budget Speech, we shall, definitely, assist the Minister to get a bigger budget for his Ministry so that he can play the role he is required to play. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other challenge is what has been said again and again; value addition. However, I want to look at it from two different angles. We know, for instance, that our raw materials are going to Europe and elsewhere, without value addition. A good example is coffee. Kenya's coffee, Grade AA, gets only one quarter of what the Blue Mountain coffee of Jamaica gets. This is because of value addition for the Jamaican coffee. That is a big challenge for us. That also applies to tea, macadamia and hides and skins. The other aspect of value addition is the focus. We shall never penetrate value addition as far as Britain is concerned. Yet, she considers herself the biggest exporter of tea, but she does not grow any tea. When you go to America you get British tea which is ridiculous, because she does not grow tea. We shall never penetrate value addition as far Germany is concerned, because they will never accept it. Prof. Anyang'-Nyong'o is correct about it. What do we do? We have two options. Let us concentrate on our region. Sudan and other countries in the region are ready for value added tea. Our Committee on Trade and Industry has just been to China and Singapore. We met officials in China and Singapore. They are ready for value added tea and macadamia. They are ready even to subsidise the importers of tea in China. What surprised me is that I saw Kenyan coffee being marketed by Singapore Airlines in the menu and giving advantages of it. However, when you travel by Kenya Airways, you will find that there is nothing like that. So, charity should begin right here at home. We should concentrate our efforts on China and Singapore and the COMESA member countries. Our solution is not in Germany or the United Kingdom. This is because they sell their coffee and tea to the United States of America. The third challenge is restructuring of the Joint Trade Loans Boards. When I was the chairman of Micro-enterprise Support Programme which is now a trust, we could not give money to them at all. Most of the funds are sourced by the European Union. But it was not possible to give them money because their accounts have never been audited for the last ten years. That is where the action should start. Those whose accounts have been audited can qualify for funding from other sources other than the Government. This is because I think this basic Joint Trade Loans Board should be able to attract funds from outside the Government. July 26, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2401 The fourth challenge concerns the prioritisation of the scarce resources which must be maximised. But even as we maximise, there is need for balancing. Even as we talk of diversifying our markets for our products, we must also know where to concentrate our market. Let us concentrate on the countries where we have comparative advantage like the East African Community and the COMESA, as well as countries which are ready to accept our value added products. The fifth challenge is employment. This is the biggest challenge this country is facing this decade. We said it in the last decade and it has now come to pass. We have many young people graduating from secondary schools and universities, but they cannot get jobs. The unemployment level in Kenya is now one of the highest, and yet, we know the sectors known as tourism, trade and industry, in addition to agriculture, create a lot of job opportunities in this country. We need to create an enabling environment for investors. I have not emphasized this because it has been talked about by the previous speakers, especially Mr. Kagwe. That enabling environment has to be there, so that we can get more investors, both local and foreign, setting up more factories. This, in turn, means more job opportunities for our people. How do we get an enabling environment? We can do so, by deregulating the licensing regime, which I think this Vote has started to do. However, enough has not been done. The other solution is what has been said, and I will not elaborate because I do not want to repeat what the previous speakers have said. Outsourcing is the best solution for middle level personnel and professionals. We can do jobs for American and UK companies from Kenya, as is happening with Kencall which has employed over 100 people already. But how about the low level personnel? This is an issue we raised when we started attending preparatory meetings of the WTO. We, as hon. Members, interact with bureaucrats both in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. We have been saying again and again, that let us also export labour. However, I am not for exporting professionals like we are doing now, because we need them badly. They include teachers and doctors. We are making a big mistake. It is a fact that we have excess labour in this country. This is what I am advocating that we export. They include the domestic staff and beauticians. The WTO rules allow this arrangement and we should take advantage of it. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}