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{
    "id": 78498,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/78498/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 224,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Raila",
    "speaker_title": "The Prime Minister",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 195,
        "legal_name": "Raila Amolo Odinga",
        "slug": "raila-odinga"
    },
    "content": " Mr. Speaker, Sir, I rise to make a Statement on Kenya’s economic competitiveness. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I am aware that the notice did not go out to hon. Members on time. I want to apologise for that communication breakdown. Mr. Speaker, Sir, and hon. Members of Parliament, in my Statement this afternoon, I would like to discuss our country’s competitiveness, namely our ability to attract private investment, expand exports and thus attain our goal of accelerating economic growth and sustaining it to more than 10 per cent. Higher economic growth is necessary to create jobs for Kenyans, particularly the youth, who are currently unemployed. The rate of unemployment is unacceptably high. I am aware, and I am also pleased, that Kenya’s economy is gathering pace and the nation is awash with optimism. The role and responsibility of the Executive and Parliament is to translate this optimism to reality. In other words, our collective duty to the nation is to adopt and execute the policies that will strengthen our competitiveness to sufficiently transform our country to a middle-income nation by the year 2030 as envisioned in Vision 2030. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the latest issue of The Economist, which is a well respected weekly journal, painted an optimistic picture of Kenya, calling our country “the region’s dynamo”, but it concludes that Kenya remains vibrant, yet fragile. The gap between the rich and the poor, as well as ethnic groups competing for abundant resources and usable land is frightening. The total investment in our country is only slightly about 20 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). When the Asian tigers sustained growth at 10 per cent, they boasted of investment of 35 per cent of GDP or even 40 per cent. More worrying is that private investment in our country remains low, at about 12 per cent of GDP. Our economy is growing at about 5.5 per cent this year. Even this growth is largely financed by borrowing. This is because we, as a country, save only about 15 per cent of GDP. It is therefore clear that we must dramatically boost private investment. We must attract a very large amount of foreign direct investment. We must substantially enhance our competitiveness. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum gives us a useful hint on where Kenya stands relative to other countries in the"
}