Kenyan industrialists map out investment strategy

NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 8, 2005 (PANA) — The Kenyan government has opened a liaison office
for southern Sudan to provide information on the emerging markets in the
vast country once reconstruction takes off the ground, according to an
official here on Friday.

Daudi Waithaka, the head of Kenya Southern Sudan Liaison Office (KESSULO)
that opened Thursday night said his office would provide concrete
information for Kenyan investors willing to exploit the business
potential in the natural resource-rich country emerging out of Sudan’s
21-year civil war.

Through KESSULO, he said industrialists in the East African nation had
formed a panel of experts to map out investment strategies in the
southern region.

Waithaka, who was addressing a forum of businessmen from Kenya and
southern Sudan in Nairobi, said the Kenya Association of Manufacturers
(KAM), a group of industry watchdogs bringing together 450 firms in
Kenya, has set up a technical working group to map out a blueprint for
investing in South Sudan.

“There are basically opportunities in key sectors — service,
manufacturing, transport, building and construction, energy and others.
For example, there is only one bank in south Sudan, no hotels and or a
powerline. Essentially, the trade opportunities are there,” Waithaka told
the forum of leading industrialists from Kenya and Sudan.

He said the east African nation plans to set up its offices in Rumbek or
moving to Juba, a town in the vast south, which could also become the
capital of the area’s semi-autonomous government.

Kenyan manufacturers are getting ready to capture the new Southern Sudan
export market, whose potentials has been unlocked by the recent peace
accord signed in Kenya early this year.

However, the manufacturers cited various constraints that could limit the
realisation of the east African nation’s full export potential to
southern Sudan.

These constraints were poor infrastructure, legalisation of commercial
documents, compliance to the rules of origin and standards
specifications, availability of market information, including potential
buyers and distribution outlets, language, conformity to packaging
requirements and the acquisition of entry visas by both Kenyan exporters
and Sudan importers which they said could limit the immediate realisation
of Kenya’s full export potential to Sudan.

Still, Waithaka challenged the industrialists to engage the government in
trying to seek ways of lowering the cost of industrial production and
increasing the export volumes to stimulate a rapid economic growth in the
country.