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{
    "id": 836953,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/836953/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 280,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Molo, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kuria Kimani",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13435,
        "legal_name": "Francis Kuria Kimani",
        "slug": "francis-kuria-kimani"
    },
    "content": " Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I was listening to Hon. Chris speak about those embassies that do not add value and that they should be closed down. I could not help but cheer him on. A Government should find out what the return is on any investment it makes. It is not just about operating these embassies but finding out what value they bring. I would like to first applaud this Committee for the good Report they have done. I would like to make contributions based on three countries. I will start with China. China is one of the biggest economies with 1.63 billion people. I think the Committee needs to find out whether it has 22 or 23 provinces. They have said it is 22 but my research is 23 and five municipalities. We could come back to Kenya and find out how many counties we have and municipalities we will have compared to a population of 1.63 billion people. That is a story for another day. I would like to analyse the balance of trade of the various countries and as Members have said, necessitate our looking at how we engage these countries. When it comes to China, our exports between 2011 and 2016 grew by 36 per cent. The value of the goods and services we exported to China between 2011 and 2016 grew by 38 per cent. However, our imports between the same year and 2016 grew by 136 per cent. It means we are gradually getting to importing more from China than we are exporting. As a result, our balance of trade has adversely moved from Kshs-140 billion to Kshs-327 billion. Let us compare that with Japan. In 2013, our exports were Kshs2.7 billion. In 2016, our exports were at Kshs4.07 billion. It shows a 52 per cent growth. What does that mean? It means that we are exporting more to Japan, by 52 per cent, over the years. How much have we imported from Japan? Our imports from Japan have been Kshs83 billion in 2011 and Kshs82 billion in 2016. Therefore, our imports from Japan have reduced. As a result, our balance of trade has improved from Kshs-81 billion to Kshs-78 billion."
}