Kenya identifies Singapore as gateway into Asian market

Kenyan President has revealed plans to use Singapore’s strategic location in South East Asia as a gateway for his country’s products.

President William Ruto said the move is guided by the government’s commitment to expanding lucrative markets for its agricultural produce, adding that the South Asian region, made up of 10 countries and with a population of approximately 670 Million, offers Kenya a “unique and massive” market to sell its goods.

Ruto invited Singapore’s private sector to invest in Kenya’s under-exploited transport and logistics sectors.

“This will check the low trade volumes and scale up our investments, thereby reducing the current trade deficit with Singapore,” he said.

The Kenyan leader was speaking on Thursday at State House in Nairobi while addressing the media alongside Singapore Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong.

Earlier, the two leaders held bilateral talks and witnessed the signing of MoUs on ICT, climate change and skills development. President Ruto said the ICT agreement will facilitate cooperation on cybersecurity, digitisation of government services and ICT capacity building.

He explained that the MoU on skills development will facilitate collaboration in human resource capacity building for civil servants and students.

On his part, Prime Minister Loong said Singapore appreciates the deep and warm relations it enjoys with Kenya.

“Our ties have been growing. We will further this by pursuing more economic opportunities that will stimulate our shared prosperity,” said Mr. Loong.