Kenyan official woos investment for Somalia, Sudan

Former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell signs the Sudan Peace agreement as a witness, as Sudan’s Vice President, Ali Osman Taha, left, and Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki, right, wait, at Nyayo Stadium Nairobi, Kenya, Sunday, Jan. 9, 2005. (AP).

NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 25, 2005 (PANA) — The Permanent Secretary in Kenya’s Trade
and Industry Ministry, Dr. Nehemiah Ngeno, on Monday encouraged
Kenyan entrepreneurs to take advantage of the cordial relations
Kenya enjoys with neighbouring Sudan and Somalia and extend
business to those countries.

“Somalia and Sudan are potential business opportunities for Kenya
and should be well exploited by the local business industry,”
Ngeno said while opening a UN business seminar in Nairobi.

He added that the proposed railway link between Kenya and
Ethiopia would provide another opportunity with Kenyan investors
to do business in Ethiopia.

Ngeno partly attributed the low volume of trade between Kenya and
Sudan on the long running civil war in southern Sudan with the
government in Khartoum, but that could change with the
comprehensive Sudanese agreement peace signed last January.