New Kenyan Government offers new opportunities for China-Kenya Cooperation.

China and Kenya have successfully established a mutually beneficial relationship over the last few years. The last decade, under President Hu Jintao and Mwai Kibaki has seen china-Kenya friendship and cooperation achieve historical heights.  As the two leaders leave the centre stage for the new leadership, it is important to maintain and enhance this relationship to tap into the unlimited opportunities that this relationship continues to create. As Kenya undergoes the process of installing a new administration, the new Chinese leader, Mr. Xi Jinping has already expressed his intention to maintain the continuity of its policies while adjusting its relations with Africa and developing countries to achieve further success in our cooperative development.

As the second largest single economy, through achieving steady growth, adjusting the economic structure and improving industrialization, information and communication, urbanization and modernization of agriculture, China has become the engine of the global economy. Its development has created more business opportunities to Kenya and boosted the recovery of the global economy. Over the last ten years that the two leaders have been in power, China and Kenya have established a long-term stable and mutually-beneficial relationship. They have established bilateral exchanges and cooperation on trade, infrastructure, energy, medical service, culture, education, technology, tourism and other areas. 

This leadership transition in both countries offers another exceptional opportunity for the incoming leaders to enhance and solidify the strategic cooperation already in place. We expect that the pace of comprehensive cooperation with China will be strengthened and accelerated as the two countries embark on a new period of cooperative development under a new set of leadership. China and Kenya have a lot to share. There are many potential areas of substantial cooperation that can be exploited. For Instance, our agricultural, Industrial and economic cooperation has a lot of potential and a promising future. China offers learning and cooperative opportunities to the new national and county governments and a development path that has been tested and proven to be effective. 

Learning from China’s development pathways is particularly timely in lieu of the recently established county governments that seek to advance development from the grassroots level. Kenya boasts abundant agricultural resources, while China is a advanced agricultural country with mature and applicable agricultural technologies.Therefore, the new national and regional governments must consider consulting a country that has successfully transformed its agricultural sector and managed to feed its huge population that accounts for 1/5 of the world’s total with just 10% of global farmland and the global average for water resources per capita. China’s transformation emphasized on agriculture which is estimated to have contributed to poverty reduction four times more than growth in the manufacturing and services sectors.
 

When food production is sufficient, industry thrives. After the boost in agriculture and rural economy development, China’s reform focused on industrial growth through gradual external openness. Farm produce needs to be processed, preserved and value added. China established special economic zones where market driven policies and flexible government measures were implemented to attract foreign investors and business to invest in China. These included investment in new infrastructure like roads, energy and telecommunications. The government provided banks and land to set up industries and preferential tax exemptions for foreign firms who wanted to invest in China. 

Many of these specific approaches to increasing agricultural productivity, food security and economic development if appropriately adapted to the Kenyan situation, may help the new leadership improve the lives of Kenyans greatly and boost economic growth. The objective should be to create food security, rural stability, surplus income and labor supply to drive industrial development and in turn economic development.

China's investment to Kenya has played a big role in promoting Kenya’s’ development and it is expected that the new leadership will take this into account. Kenya needs China to support its economic and social development as it strives to fulfill its economic and development goals set in the Vision 2030 development plan. With the same cooperation from the two sides, and taking advantage of the new opportunities, Kenya has a chance to benefit a great deal from China’s experiences and lessons, bringing more benefits to the people of Kenya.